Edwin Bracewell

Edwin Bracewell
Main aliases:	Dr. Bracewell Professor Bracewell Paisley Paisley Boy The Scottish Boffin Sir Edwin Bracewell (alternate timeline)
Place of origin:	Earth
Appearances:	DW: Victory of the Daleks DW: The Pandorica Opens
Main actor:	[[actor::Bill Paterson|Bill Paterson]]

Dr. Edwin Bracewell was an android modelled after a Scottish human. He was made by the Daleks after they landed in 1941. Bracewell was placed in the Cabinet War Rooms below London as an advisor to Winston Churchill. He was unaware of his origins, and was implanted with memories of a human life and the creation of the Daleks as a weapon called an 'Ironside' for Britain.

Biography

When Churchill summoned the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond to the war rooms, he introduced Bracewell to them, who proudly showed off his "creations". The Doctor caused the Daleks to reveal their true nature. When Bracewell tried to stop the Daleks, they revealed him as their own creation, blasting his left hand off.

After the Doctor foiled the Daleks' original plan, they revealed that Bracewell's android body contained an Oblivion Continuum as a power source, and threatened to use it as a bomb and destroy the planet. The Daleks activated the bomb and fled.

The Doctor and Amy tried to stop the Oblivion Continuum from detonating by using Bracewell's memories - which had been stolen from an actual human and contained every detail and emotion of his human life - to force Bracewell to embrace his humanity. Memories of the postal office his "parents" worked in, nearby ash trees, the trenches of the First World War, and the death of his parents were not enough. It was only when Amy reminded him of fancying someone he knew he shouldn't - Dorabella - that his android programming was broken, thus deactivating the weapon.

Afterward, Bracewell assumed the Doctor would deactivate him as he was Dalek technology, and had "no business" on Earth. At first he accepted this fate, but was overjoyed when he eventually caught on to the Doctor's hints that he would do otherwise. Instead, the Doctor encouraged him to seek out a normal human life, looking for the postal office and Dorabella. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)

It is possible that there was an actual human Edwin Bracewell, as the Doctor mentioned that the android probably had the memories of a real human implanted in him. If this is the case, then it is likely that the Daleks killed the real Bracewell after they had extracted his memories or transfered his brainwaves to the android. It is also possible that the real human had another name.

Churchill and Bracewell discuss van Gogh's painting. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)

Some time after those events, Bracewell found one of the final paintings by Vincent van Gogh. He showed Winston Churchill the painting and they recognised it as a message for the Doctor. Churchill tried to ring the Doctor to alert him, but was diverted to River Song in the 52nd Century, alerting her of its existence. (DW: The Pandorica Opens) The Doctor eventually changed the timeline such that these later events, and therefore the painting, no longer existed. (DW: The Big Bang)

Alternative timeline

In an alternate timeline in which the Doctor never found the Ironsides, they successfully turned the tide of the war and took the fight to Germany. After the war was won, Bracewell was knighted for his almost single-handed contribution to the allied victory in Europe. Sadly his genius was cut down in its prime, Churchill was pressured by Stalin and Truman, who were both unwilling to leave the Ironsides in the hands of him alone, to have them destroyed. This was accomplished by the first test of the atom bomb, conducted on the Isle of Man on 7 February 1943. This devastated Bracewell to such an extent that he claimed he had forgotten key points from his research and work on such fanciful notions as the "Gravity bubble" had to be abandoned. Relieved of his duty once the war was over, he retired to a small town in the country where he is believed to have lived in seclusion for the rest of his life. (DWAN: Doctor Who The Official Annual 2011)

Behind the scenes

• Amy called Edwin 'Paisley' and 'Paisley Boy'. Head writer Steven Moffat is also a 'Paisley Boy'.
• Bracewell's portrayal in 'Victory' is not unlike the introduction of Davros in Genesis of the Daleks . As in that story, the "Ironsides" are intended as a weapon to win a war, and rebel against their 'creator'. Davros created the Daleks, the Daleks created Bracewell and made him believe he created them. Davros lost his eyesight and movement of his left arm in undisclosed circumstances, and Bracewell uses spectacles and loses the use of his left hand over the course of 'Victory'. Davros is an organic life-form who turns himself into a cyborg, Bracewell an artificial life-form made to resemble a cyborg. Davros' greed for power and disdain for life and emotions is what leads to his madness, the slaughter of his army, and his own death; Bracewell's embracing of his own human emotions save his army and himself. Davros tortures the Doctor's companions, knowing that they will feel pain where he will not; the Doctor believes that he can make Bracewell act human by forcing him to feel pain.
• He is mentioned by the ironside Dalek at the 2010 proms (SP: Doctor Who at the Proms)