Flavia

Flavia was a Lord Chancellor in the High Council of Time Lords, and later Lady President.

Biography
She met with the fifth incarnation of the Doctor when Borusa summoned the Doctor's other selves to the Death Zone. She was sympathetic towards him. Following Borusa's defeat and entombment in the Dark Tower, the High Council granted Flavia the authority to make the Doctor President of the High Council. The Doctor used his emergency powers to put Flavia in charge, appointing her Acting President until he returned. He then escaped from his homeworld of Gallifrey, evading the responsibility the office of Lord President. (DW: The Five Doctors)

Flavia later assumed the office of President, but was deposed in favour of the political non-entity Niroc.The Celestial Intervention Agency wanted a President they could control more easily, to conceal the recent theft of important data from the Matrix. The Doctor was put on trial during this period. A Committee of Inquiry was opened into the trial. This was due to the actions of the Eighth Doctor and a temporal duplicate of the Sixth Doctor. The latter was created when the Valeyard tried to 'force' an alternate timeline where the Sixth Doctor was found guilty and executed. The Eighth Doctor awakening Borusa to quell the riots while the Sixth Doctor fought the Valeyard and the Master in the Matrix. (EDA: The Eight Doctors; DW: The Trial of a Time Lord: The Ultimate Foe)

When the Seventh Doctor was captured by the Committee of Three, his companions escaped and warned President Flavia of the danger. (NA: Blood Harvest)

Shortly afterwards, Ruath shot Flavia with a stunner to gain access to the Time Scoop. (MA: Goth Opera)

She learnt the Eighth Doctor was visiting his past seven selves for unknown reasons, bypassing all usual security protocols preventing such interaction. Flavia, despite the protests of the unscrupulous Time Lord Ryoth, decided to allow these visits to continue until they were proven to be a danger to Gallifrey. Once the visits were concluded, Flavia reflected that she wished the Doctor well in his future adventures. (EDA: The Eight Doctors)

Later, Romana challenged Flavia for the role of President and won. (NA: Happy Endings)


 * The manner of Romana's ascendency is unclear. One source claims Romana ran against Flavia in an election and won. (NA: Happy Endings) Romana recalled that she had invoked a 'right of challange' against her predecessor as President of the High Council, just as Darkel later challenged her. (BFG: Insurgency) However, Braxiatel stated that no-one had held the role of Lord Chancellor "for many years", not since Romana's "predecessor quelled his predecessor's less-than-stellar stewardship"; while Romana said she had been "asked to become President after the coup that overthrew Flavia's inauspicious reign", in spite of her lack of political experience – suggesting another President ruled in an interim. (BFG: Lies)

Behind the scenes

 * The character of Flavia filled in for that of Thalia, who had appeared in the earlier story, Arc of Infinity. The production team decided not to simply recast the role using the excuse of regeneration and made up a new character.
 * According to various commentaries on the Series 1 and 2 DVDs, Russell T Davies refers to the lilting female vocal in the musical score as 'Flavia's Theme'.
 * The character of the Inquisitor is never referred to by name during her appearances in the fourteen-episode The Trial of a Time Lord arc. Although the name Darkel has been assigned to her by spinoff media, it is also speculated that the Inquistor might have been a regenerated Flavia. However this is highly unlikely as Time Lords tend to recognise each other after regenerations. (DW: The Twin Dilemma, The Armageddon Factor, The Five Doctors)
 * According to The Brilliant Book 2012, a non-canonical REF book; after she became President, the Corsair tricked Flavia into revoking the censure put on him/her for the theft of the Portrait of Rassilon. She gave in to his smile and revoked the censure.