Ed Gold

Deputy Edward "Ed" Gold, (2008-2059) an Australian, was second in command at Bowie Base One. Captain Adelaide Brooke and he had an edgy relationship. On several occasions he tried to take heroic or commanding actions, only for her to order him back to his post.

In 2059, after the Flood attacked the base, Ed was infected but blew up the ship before he fully transformed, killing himself and preventing the Flood from reaching Earth.

Biography
Ed was born in 2008 in the Australian city of Adelaide. As a child, Ed was fascinated by space travel and would build model rockets from cardboard and plastics. He was educated at St Andrews School and St Peter's College, before receiving a bachelor of engineering degree in mechanical engineering, with first class honours, from the University of Adelaide in 2030.

Gold accepted an offer from Lockheed and became a US citizen in 2040, hoping to become a NASA astronaut, but returned to Australia in 2044 to campaign for a national space programme. He argued the country had the infrastructure, industry, and university base to achieve this. His campaign led to the construction of a space elevator off the coast of Western Australia.

In 2059, when the Flood attacked the base and the Tenth Doctor arrived, Gold thought he was the culprit behind the virus. He was proven wrong. When the severity of the infection became clear, he reminded Brooke of the evacuation protocols and was ordered to prep the base's shuttle.

While the shuttle was being readied, the infected Maggie Cain got in and fired a stream of water up the shaft to the cockpit; though he attempted to seal the door, the water managed to infect him. Knowing that the Flood wanted the ship to reach Earth and its considerable volumes of water, he exchanged a final farewell with the survivors and self-destructed the shuttle moments before he fully turned, killing himself and stranding the Flood on Mars. (TV: The Waters of Mars)

Behind the scenes

 * He was born in the city of Adelaide, which shares the name with the commander of Bowie Base One, Adelaide Brooke.
 * In a deleted scene, it was revealed that Gold was originally planned to have a romantic interest in Adelaide that he was never able to express due to the rules against relationships on the mission. However, when the scene where the anti-relationship policy was revealed - after the Doctor disclosed the relationship between Yuri Kerenski and Mia Bennett - was deleted, this sub-plot was also 'sacrificed', being replaced by Gold making unexplained comments about how Adelaide could never forgive him for some unspecified past event.