Lady Inquisitor Prime Darkelatraquistahastrad (Darkel for short) of the House of Jurisprudence served on the High Council of Gallifrey.
Biography
Like all Time Lords, Darkel was taken from her family at the age of eight for the selection process in the Drylands. Staring into the Untempered Schism as part of a Time Lord initiation rite, Darkel was inspired by what she saw in the Schism. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords)
Involvement in the Doctor's trial
Darkel presided over the Sixth Doctor's trial on the Time Lord Space Station Zenobia. The Valeyard acted as prosecutor. (TV: The Mysterious Planet, TV: Mindwarp) The Doctor acted as his own defence lawyer. (TV: Terror of the Vervoids)
An honest woman, Darkel presided over a show trial meant to draw attention away from the corrupt High Council. With political unrest demanding a new Lord President and the Doctor unwilling to take the job himself, he gave a symbolic vote of confidence to Darkel before departing in his TARDIS. (TV: The Ultimate Foe)
The Valeyard on trial
Darkel oversaw the trial of the Valeyard. She brought the charges against him whilst the Sixth Doctor provided his defence. After the Valeyard was seemingly executed, Darkel followed the Doctor to a satellite of Etarho, where she discovered that the Valeyard had survived. She witnessed the Valeyard escape from her grasp and left the satellite with the Doctor in his TARDIS. The Doctor warned Darkel that the Valeyard would try to assassinate her now that he was free. (AUDIO: Trial of the Valeyard)
Later events
By the time of Romana II's presidency, Darkel had become a deeply conservative and ferociously ambitious figure in Gallifreyan politics. She vehemently opposed Romana's reforms, particularly her invitation to off-worlders to become students of the Time Lord Academy. She began her campaign innocuously when she was invited by Coordinator Narvin, another opponent of Romana, to undertake an inquiry into Romana's actions on Gryben. (AUDIO: Weapon of Choice) She presided over the inquiry with Braxiatel. Her line of questioning was to prove that Timonic Fusion Device couldn't be made and that the actions on Gryben weren't merited. She learnt that Braxiatel had interfered with time to create the Braxiatel Collection. She sanctioned Romana and Braxiatel to go back in time to stop the retro-crime and stop the Device from being stolen. She then closed the proceedings as it was impossible now to deem if there was any real threat. (AUDIO: The Inquiry)
After a mutually satisfactory resolution to the inquiry, Darkel conspired with Narvin and also with the disgraced Andred to overthrow Romana by any means. She didn't approve opening the academy to the Temporal Powers and thought that Romana's changes were bad. Darkel thought that she could change laws as easily as Romana could. She questioned Andred about his association with the Free Time Movement and allowed him to escape. She wanted to frame Narvin for Andred's escape and had Narvin frame him for the murder of the Archivist. (AUDIO: Lies)
At the Inquiry into the Pandora incident, she argued that Romana was now ineffectual as a President as she couldn't interface with the Matrix. She noted that there was no legal reasoning for having Romana removed from office. (AUDIO: Spirit)
She continued to plot against Romana with anyone whom she thought to be useful. When she learned that Romana's genetics had been shaped by Pandora, she tried to convince Cardinal Braxiatel it was too great a risk for her to be president. She wanted to Narvin to be the one who investigated the mysterious body. She manipulated Leela into convincing Romana to appoint Braxiatel and Wynter to accidentally release Pandora. Darkel manoeuvred Braxiatel into exile when he absorbed aspects of Pandora into his mind. (AUDIO: Pandora) She used her public vidcasts to make the public weary of the academy and started to remove alien students from it. She informed Romana about the information she had interrogated out of Gillestes. She thought that Romana's policy would cause the Free Time movement to take hold and warned her that a civil war would be imminent if the off-worlders weren't taken off world. (AUDIO: Insurgency) During this period, Darkel received advice and guidance from a disembodied voice in the Vaults. Unbeknownst to her, it was actually the voice of Pandora.
With Braxiatel out of the way, Darkel challenged Romana for the presidency. She also plotted with Commentator Antimon to plant bombs aimed at the alien students. Antimon, however, was a follower of the Free Time movement, using Darkel's patronage to his own ends. He tried to kill Romana, Darkel, and the High Council when they met for the election. The plot foiled, Romana declared herself Imperiatrix, effectively dictator, denying Darkel the election. At that moment Pandora took physical form and also claimed the Imperiatrix title. Darkel realised too late that she had been duped by Pandora. (AUDIO: Imperiatrix)
Desperate for survival, Darkel sided with Pandora and prosecuted the civil war against Romana on her behalf. She often inspected the damage Romana caused. Valyes got her to visit Gerber to find out what Romana asked him to complete. She interrogated Gerber and got him to join her on a visit to the outlands. She destroyed the facility and got Gerber to report a false story. (AUDIO: Fractures) She coordinated the attack on Academy once it found to be Romana's base. She knew that Pandora was weak and hoped to claim the presidency off her. She planted a bug bomb on Narvin. She gave Matthias a disc that contained a new variation of the Dogma Virus hoping to infect Romana. This failed as Matthias gave them to Hallan and he was the one infected. Matthias lured her away from Pandora so that Romana could execute her final plans. She proved to be a ruthless and determined warlord, but her arrogance led to her capture by the enemy and being on the losing side. (AUDIO: Warfare) She was placed under arrest and under constant guard but she was pardoned. She informed Romana of the election which the High Council had instigated. With Romana incapacitated, she was appointed by Acting President Valyes as his successor. (AUDIO: Appropriation) She got Romana arrested for high treason and got all her decisions from the moment Pandora escaped annulled. She got Janartis to make sure that all conversions in Romana's cell. She explained to Narvin why she annulled most of Romana's presidency. The disputed presidency again had to be put to a vote, but again Darkel was thwarted, this time by the returning Braxiatel. Provoking him into releasing the Pandora entity, Darkel discovered that Pandora had been targeting her all along and that Brax had been protecting her. Darkel's subsequent possession by Pandora destroyed her mind and killed her. (AUDIO: Mindbomb)
Alternate timeline
The Doctor, Mel, and Darkel. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)
In an alternate timeline where the Cybermen invaded all of time and space, Darkel agreed with the Sixth Doctor that he and Mel Bush should follow the Valeyard into the Matrix. (COMIC: Prologue: The Sixth Doctor)
Behind the scenes
- On-screen Darkel had no name given to her, other than "the Inquisitor". The name Darkel was given to her in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio spin-off series Gallifrey.
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