Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 - 25 March 1603) was a Queen of England during the 16th and early 17th centuries, and apparently a spouse of the Tenth Doctor.

Biography


Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry VIII of England and his second wife Anne Boleyn, who was executed on 4 May 1536. (BFA: Recorded Time) Her immediate predecessor was her elder half-sister Mary I, a devout Catholic who sought to "wipe the Protestant scourge from every corner of England." (BFA: The Marian Conspiracy)

The First Doctor first encountered Elizabeth I as an image on the Time-Space Visualiser. He, Barbara Wright, Vicki Pallister and Ian witnessed her attempting to influence William Shakespeare to write another play featuring the character of Falstaff — this one featuring Falstaff "in love". (DW: The Chase)
 * The implication is that Elizabeth was commissioning The Merry Wives of Windsor, a nod to an historical legend in which Elizabeth actually was the impetus for the writing of this play. However, The Chase does not explicitly name the work, nor give a definite date for this encounter.

Elizabeth I's court astrologer John Dee was apparently another identity of Jared Khan, who was still fruitlessly hunting the Doctor at the time. At this point, the Queen appeared to be on friendly terms with the Doctor, then in his seventh incarnation. (NA: Birthright)

One of her advisers was John Whiteside-Smith, a distant ancestor of the Sixth Doctor's companion Evelyn Smythe. (BFA: The Marian Conspiracy)

The Sixth Doctor and Evelyn eventually visited the court of Elizabeth I at some point, which was their intended destination at the time of Evelyn's first trip in the TARDIS. (BFA: Thicker than Water) During his eighth incarnation, the Doctor would later return to Elizabeth's court in the company of Samson and Gemma Griffin. (BFA: Terror Firma)

Elizabeth's relations with the Tenth Doctor were more complicated. From his perspective, they first met in 1599. On that occasion, in the Globe Theatre, she immediately recognised him and ordered her guards to kill him. (DW: The Shakespeare Code)

Some time after his adventure on Bowie Base One, the Doctor returned to 16th century England, where he met Elizabeth at an earlier moment in her life. He told Ood Sigma that he married "Good Queen Bess", and implied that she could no longer be called by one of her epithets. The Doctor stopped mid-sentence, leaving his precise meaning vague. (DW: The End of Time) Elizabeth had multiple sobriquets, including "the Virgin Queen" and "Good Queen Bess". (BFA: The Marian Conspiracy) Elizabeth X later made a passing remark regarding a relationship between the Doctor and the "Virgin Queen", also implying that the Doctor and Elizabeth I in some measure consummated their marriage. (DW: The Beast Below) A similar reference to the "Virgin Queen" nickname was also made by the Dream Lord. (DW: Amy's Choice) When discussing things he still had time for with Dorium, the Doctor mentioned that "Liz the First" was still waiting to elope with him in a glade, indicating that he may not have gone through with the marriage. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)

Behind the scenes

 * Following the broadcast of The Shakespeare Code, it was persistently rumoured that an adventure featuring Queen Elizabeth I and the Tenth Doctor would be forthcoming. However, one never came in Series 4, and pre-broadcast information about the 2009 specials did not seem to favour the return of Elizabeth, either. The fact that Elizabeth was mentioned in The End of Time therefore came as a surprise to many fans who had long since resolved that this would remain a mystery with the departure of the Tenth Doctor.