Bowships, or Bow Ships, (PROSE: Gallifrey: A Rough Guide [+]Steve Lyons and Chris Howarth, DWM short stories (Panini Publishing Ltd, 2000).) were warcraft used by the Time Lords in their war against the Great Vampires, designed by a young Rassilon.
Armaments[]
The primary weapon of a bowship was a launcher firing a "mighty bolt of steel" capable of killing a Great Vampire if it pierced it through the heart. (Great Vampires absorbed attacks from directed energy weapons and rapidly regenerated damage from minor projectiles.) (TV: State of Decay [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1980)., PROSE: Starships and Spacestations [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
They were also equipped with stasers and thoracite arrows. (COMIC: Monstrous Beauty [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2020).)
History[]
Against the Vampires[]
Rassilon returning to Gallifrey with the remaining bowships from the Eternal War (PROSE: The Scrolls of Rassilon [+]John Peel, 1991.)
Bowships were first used during Gallifrey's war with the Great Vampires. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) According to the Record of Rassilon, it was Rassilon who ordered the construction of bowships. (TV: State of Decay [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1980).) Rival histories suggested he may have taken the idea from someone else. (PROSE: Interference - Book One [+]Lawrence Miles, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1999).) One account claimed the bowships were actually first constructed by the Mithras Hives whilst Rassilon was still a Commander. (COMIC: Monstrous Beauty [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2020).) Another account suggested the idea for them derived from the discoveries of General Skellis. (PROSE: The Multi-Faceted War [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Rassilon himself piloted a Bowship against the Great Vampires and drove them from the galaxy. (PROSE: The Multi-Faceted War [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Bowships were given artificial intelligence, which ultimately played against the Time Lords. Some wanted compensation before attacking a Great Vampire. (AUDIO: The Scent of Blood [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Of the almost 700 bowships that went into this war, only 34 returned. (PROSE: The Scrolls of Rassilon [+]John Peel, 1991.)
Later use[]
Bowships were mentioned in the Record of Rassilon. (TV: State of Decay [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who season 18 (BBC1, 1980).)
The Eighth Doctor encountered a Bowship near Edinburgh during the 1890s. (AUDIO: The Scent of Blood [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Bowships were time-scooped for use in the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) They could not prevent the Fall of Arcadia. (PROSE: A Prologue [+]The Shakespeare Notebooks (2014).)
Rassilon being escorted to his bowship. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]George Mann and Cavan Scott, Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2016).)
Rassilon was exiled from Gallifrey in a Bowship, (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]George Mann and Cavan Scott, Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2016).) classed by the Twelfth Doctor as a shuttle. (TV: Hell Bent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).)
Arriving in the Capitol after escaping the Cyberman invasion of Karn, the Doctor, asked for the bow-ships to be scrambled, only to find Rassilon, allied with the Cybermen. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]George Mann and Cavan Scott, Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2016).)
A damaged Bowship crashed into Terebek, and dragged the entire asteroid along with it as it performed time jumps. Jenny managed to repair it and used it to find the Twelfth Doctor. When white holes began consuming the universe, the Ninth, Tenth and Twelfth Doctors used the bowship to travel to the Void and stop the attack at its source, totalling the bowship. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension [+]George Mann, et al., Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2017).)
