Irving Braxiatel

Irving Braxiatel or Cardinal Braxiatel is a fictional character from the Virgin New Adventures &mdash; spin-off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. He subsequently became a regular character in novels and audio dramas in the Bernice Summerfield universe. In the Big Finish Productions audio dramas he is voiced by Miles Richardson.

The New and Missing Adventures
Braxiatel, a Time Lord, first appeared in the novel Theatre of War by Justin Richards, although the Fourth Doctor's companion Romana mentions the Braxiatel Collection in passing in the 1979 television serial City of Death. In terms of the Doctor's timeline, their first portrayed meeting was in the Virgin Missing Adventures First Doctor novel The Empire of Glass by Andy Lane, although they already knew each other. Braxiatel met the Seventh Doctor in Theatre of War and was also at the wedding of Bernice "Benny" Summerfield and Jason Kane in Happy Endings by Paul Cornell.

The Braxiatel Collection — renowned for being one of the greatest art galleries in the galaxy — was founded by Irving Braxiatel and located on an asteroid which Braxiatel was rumoured to have won by playing cards. It had extensive archaeological libraries which could be used by Braxiatel's permission. Braxiatel's collection of books contained every book banned by the Catholic church; he may have acquired these from the Library of St. John the Beheaded in England, or he may have founded the Library. The Library of St. John was featured in the New Adventure All-Consuming Fire by Andy Lane and the Missing Adventure Millennial Rites by Craig Hinton, though neither gives a full account of its origin.

In The Empire of Glass, Braxiatel became involved with galactic politics. He organised the Armageddon Convention, which he tried to get the Doctor to chair, but by mistake his agents brought a physically similar man. The Convention was not particularly successful, although we know that it did outlaw the use of cyberbombs (Revenge of the Cybermen). Braxiatel decided to go back to collecting.

At some point, Braxiatel became the head of the Department of Theatrology at St. Oscar's University on Dellah. After Benny obtained a post at the archaeology department in 2593, the pair of them became entangled in many adventures. After the destruction of the planet Dellah, Braxiatel invited Benny to join him at the Braxiatel Collection.

The Bernice Summerfield novel Tears of the Oracle by Justin Richards suggests that Braxiatel is the Doctor's brother. Certainly in the short story Be Forgot the Doctor leaves Braxiatel a christmas present of a pair of socks, signed 'Thete', indicating that their relationship goes back to the days on Gallifrey when the Doctor was called Theta Sigma.

Gallifrey
Braxiatel also appears, as Cardinal Braxiatel, in the Doctor Who audio drama Zagreus and in the spin-off series Gallifrey. In these stories, which are set prior to the Bernice Summerfield stories in Braxiatel's timeline, he is a member of the High Council of Time Lords and a confidante of President Romana.

In Gallifrey: The Inquiry, it was revealed that the disastrous test of a timeonic fusion device which destroyed the planet Minyos prompted Braxiatel to begin collecting and preserving historical artefacts in case such widespread destruction ever happened. He also admitted that he had transgressed the Laws of Time by being in contact with his future regenerations.

In Gallifrey: Pandora, Braxiatel became Chancellor, but mere hours later had to use his mind to contain the past and present forms of an ancient Gallifreyan evil known as Pandora. As Pandora would be able to escape if he ever connected to the Matrix or telepathically communicated with another Time Lord mind, Braxiatel exiled himself from Gallifrey.

In Gallifrey: Warfare Romana destroyed the future form of Pandora (as well as its intelligence), at the cost of also destroying the Matrix. When Romana was removed from office in Gallifrey: Mindbomb, Braxiatel returned briefly to Gallifrey and assumed the post of Lord President, since there was no longer anywhere for the Pandora entity to escape to.

However, the ambitious Inquisitor Darkel goaded Braxiatel into losing control of Pandora, believing that it would destroy itself and Braxiatel's mind in the process. Braxiatel then revealed that only a remnant of the entity had ever been in his mind; the bulk of it had sought refuge in Darkel and Braxiatel had merely been the key that kept it restrained. So freed, Pandora consumed both Darkel and itself. Braxiatel returned to his exile, retaining the last fragments of Pandora within him.

However, Braxiatel was not done: hearing rumors of an impending threat against Gallifrey and deciding that in its weakened state the planet was doomed, he hatched a scheme to preserve the Time Lord biodata archive, containing the genetic patterns of all Time Lords, past and present, in the hopes of reconstructing Gallifrey after its inevitable fall. Gallifrey: Panacea, the last of the series, ends on a cliffhanger: Gallifrey is on the brink of economic and social collapse as well as in danger of being overrun by a virus created by the terrorist organisation Free Time, while most of the characters are trapped with no apparent means of escape.

Benny Summerfield audios
Following Benny's move to the Braxiatel Collection in her last Virgin book, Big Finish's series of Benny books and audios have focused on her continuing adventures as part of the collection. Braxiatel is a key character, being aloof and mysterious but still being considered one of Benny's closest friends.

A conspiracy started to develop around Braxiatel, first occurring in the audio The Mirror Effect. While all the characters were shown dark, twisted mirror images of themselves, Braxiatel was unaffected and when Jason Kane wondered if the real Braxiatel was the mirror version, Jason was brainwashed into being unable to be suspicious of Braxiatel. Further incidents showed the Time Lord to be secretly more dangerous and manipulative than he was letting on — in the book A Life In Pieces, he was shown using a brainwashed Jason for his own ends as well as having murder done in his name and causing a civil war in the Domus system. The other characters remained unaware of any of this.

Braxiatel was finally caught out when, following the Collection's occupation by the Fifth Axis and their Dalek masters, he decided to ensure the Collection would survive by finding an army to defend it. He turned to the colony of Cantus, which had been taken over long ago by the Cybermen, and had a member of the Collection, Ronan McGinley, turned into a Cyber-Controller subordinate to Braxiatel's will. Using a mysterious Gallifreyan crystal, Ronan was able to make all the Cybermen follow Braxiatel's orders. In the audio adventure, The Crystal of Cantus it was revealed that the crystal was slowly killing Ronan, so Braxiatel arranged for Jason to arrive on Cantus to become the new Controller. Thanks to Benny, this plan backfired and Jason remembered everything that Braxiatel had done to him. Braxiatel then left the Collection, his current whereabouts unknown.

The last words Ronan McGinley spoke were, "The thing in your head... it's still there...", hinting that Pandora is still active.

Canonicity
The canonicity of the character with respect to the television series (in which the name Braxiatel is mentioned, but the character never appeared) and to other Doctor Who spin-offs is unclear. There has been no indication of whether or how the character might relate to events depicted in the 2005 television series revival. (In The End of the World, the Doctor stated that his homeworld had been destroyed and that he was the last of the Time Lords, which raises the question of whether Braxiatel is still alive.)