Editing H. G. Wells

{{Update|Info from ''[[War of the Worlds (comic story)|War of the Worlds]]'' and ''[[Travers & Wells (series)|Travers & Wells]]'' needs to be added.}}
{{Infobox Individual
|image       = Herbert.jpg
|species     = Human
|origin      = [[Earth]]
|first mention =  The Eternal Present (comic story)
|first       = War of the Worlds (comic story)
|appearances = {{appears}}
|actor       = David Chandler
|voice actor = Philip Labey
|bts         = Special Feature - All's Well's That Ends Wells - The Ark - Doctor Who - BBC
}}{{wikipediainfo|H. G. Wells}}{{you may|H. G. Wells (writer)|n1=the real-world author}}'''Herbert George Wells''', also called '''H.G. Wells''', '''George''', and '''Bertie''', was an author native to [[19th century|19th]] and [[20th century]] [[Earth]]. After a life-changing encounter with the [[Sixth Doctor]], he coined the phrase "[[science fiction]]" and began to write novels in that genre. ([[TV]]: ''[[Timelash (TV story)|Timelash]]'') Two of his novels in particular — ''[[The Time Machine]]'' and ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' — later had both subtle and significant impact upon the Doctor's life.

== Biography ==
=== Adventures with the Doctor ===
While holidaying in [[Scotland]] during the summer of [[1885]], a young H.G. Wells experimented with magic and believed he had summoned both [[Vena]], who had appeared via the [[Timelash]], and the [[Sixth Doctor]], whose [[the Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]] seemed to follow her. The Doctor found Wells somewhat irritating. Wells accompanied the Doctor to the [[planet]] [[Karfel]] and helped him defeat the despotic [[Borad]]. Along the way, Wells found inspiration for the fiction he would write and publish. Thanks to the Doctor, Wells also inadvertently coined the phrase "[[science fiction]]". ([[TV]]: ''[[Timelash (TV story)|Timelash]]'')

Soon after, Wells met a temporally-displaced [[Edward Travers]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Time and Again (short story)|Time and Again]]'') They discovered that Travers had a ring containing a shard of a Kontron crystal, much like the crystal Vena had given him before he departed Karfel. They went on a series of adventures across alternative worlds, with Wells being haunted by a vision of Vena. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Other Wars, Other Worlds (novel)|Other Wars, Other Worlds]]'')

[[File:Wells (The Time Machination).jpg|thumb|left|Wells and [[Jonathan Smith]] meet the [[Tenth Doctor]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Time Machination (comic story)|The Time Machination]]'')]]
However, Wells did not begin writing these adventures until after another meeting with the Doctor, this time in his [[Tenth Doctor|tenth incarnation]], in [[1889]]. Wells assisted the Doctor against both the [[time travel]]ler [[Jonathan Smith]] and members of the [[Torchwood Institute]]. After the Doctor's departure, Wells witnessed the arrival of [[Fourth Doctor|a past incarnation]] of the Doctor and [[Leela]] but did not make himself known to them. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Time Machination (comic story)|The Time Machination]]'')

At some point in the [[1890s]], Wells encountered the [[Second Doctor]], who introduced himself as "John Smith". Wells was unaware that this was the same Doctor whose future incarnations he encountered before. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Piltdown Men (audio story)|The Piltdown Men]]'')

=== Martian invasion of Earth ===
{{section stub|Missing info from ''[[War of the Worlds (comic story)|War of the Worlds]]''.}}
According to [[Norton Folgate]], Wells helped Torchwood cover up an [[Martian (War of the Worlds)|alien]] [[Martian invasion of Earth|invasion]] in the 1890s by writing it up as a novel. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Goodbye Piccadilly (audio story)|Goodbye Piccadilly]]'')

However, one account also showed that Wells straightforwardly penned ''[[A Memoir on the Martian Invasion of Earth]]''. This memoir was one of the documents which found their way to the custody of [[Preternatural Research Bureau|P.R.O.B.E.]], being placed on the [[Dr Smith shelf]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Out of the Box (short story)|Out of the Box]]'')

=== Undated information ===
The [[Third Doctor]] claimed to have lent Bertie Wells his ion-focusing coil for an [[invisibility]] experiment. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Ghosts of N-Space (audio story)|The Ghosts of N-Space]]'') The [[Fourth Doctor]] knew a [[time tale]] told to him by Wells ([[COMIC]]: ''[[War of the Worlds (comic story)|War of the Worlds]]'') about [[Griffin (The Invisible Man)|Griffin]], an invisible man. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Invisible Man (comic story)|The Invisible Man]]'')

[[Theophilus Tolliver]], a friend of Wells, told him about his adventures travelling in time. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Eternal Present (comic story)|The Eternal Present]]'')

=== Legacy ===
HG Wells had a [[biography]] that was kept inside the [[York]] [[York Central Library|Central Library]]. The [[Ninth Doctor]] defaced a copy with a "[[hand-held electronic 'eraser' device]]" prior to [[March]] [[2005]], along with the biographies of [[Boudica]], [[Tancred Norman]], [[Xenocrates]], [[Blaise Pascal]] and [[Margaret Thatcher]]. [[Senior librarian]] [[Ms]] [[Millicent Davies]] [[ban]]ned the Doctor from the York Central Library and then applied to get the Doctor an [[ASBO]] to ban him from all [[UK]] [[library|libraries]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Have You Seen This Man? (short story)|Have You Seen This Man?]]'')

== Other references ==
While in the process of attempting to start an inter-stellar war between [[Earth]] and [[Draconia]], {{Delgado}} read a copy of H.G. Wells's ''[[The War of the Worlds]]''. ([[TV]]: ''[[Frontier in Space (TV story)|Frontier in Space]]'')

Disbelieving in time machines, [[Laurence Scarman]] compared the [[Fourth Doctor]]'s assertions to the "scientific romances of Mr Wells." ([[TV]]: ''[[Pyramids of Mars (TV story)|Pyramids of Mars]]'') Other scoffers made similar statements. ([[TV]]: ''[[Black Orchid (TV story)|Black Orchid]]'')

In answer to the Fourth Doctor's claim that [[Rutan|an alien]] was at work on [[Fang Rock]], [[James Skinsale]] said that he could "appreciate the scientific romanticism of Mister Wells". ([[TV]]: ''[[Horror of Fang Rock (TV story)|Horror of Fang Rock]]'')

In the late [[19th century]], [[Fabian Solak]] commented that [[solar power|power from the sun]] sounded "far-fetched; like something out of the works of H. G. Wells". ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Cars That Ate London! (audio story)|The Cars That Ate London!]]'')

While in [[Ostend]], [[Belgium]] in [[1913]], the Sixth Doctor's companion [[Peri Brown]] intended to send a postcard to Wells but never actually got around to doing so. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Year of the Pig (audio story)|Year of the Pig]]'')

Shortly before his [[regeneration]], the [[Seventh Doctor]] relaxed in [[The Doctor's TARDIS|his TARDIS]] reading a copy of Wells's ''[[The Time Machine]]''. Later, his [[Eighth Doctor|next incarnation]] did the same. ([[TV]]: ''[[Doctor Who (TV story)|Doctor Who]]'')

As a child, [[Ian Chesterton]] loved the works of both Wells and [[Jules Verne]]. Their stories inspired him to pursue a career in science. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Eleventh Tiger (novel)|The Eleventh Tiger]]'')

[[Sarah Jane Smith]] had a copy of a volume of Wells's short stories in her [[13 Bannerman Road|library]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Invasion of the Bane (TV story)|Invasion of the Bane]]'')

The [[Eighth Doctor]] once noted that Wells was an enthusiast, "especially for the ladies." ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Eight Doctors (novel)|The Eight Doctors]]'')

On [[30 October]] [[1938]], actor [[Orson Welles]] mounted a radio production of Wells's ''The War of the Worlds'', which was presented as a news broadcast; the resulting production sparked a nationwide panic. Unknown to the public at large, however, an actual invasion attempt occurred during this time which was thwarted by the [[Eighth Doctor]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Invaders from Mars (audio story)|Invaders from Mars]]'')

The [[Eighth Doctor]] once noted that Wells had "possesse[d] a most passionate concern for Man and Society." ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Casualties of War (novel)|Casualties of War]]'')

[[Marnal]] was a friend of Wells. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)|The Gallifrey Chronicles]]'')

{{Delgado|c}} once met the titular character of ''[[The Invisible Man]]'' in the [[Land of Fiction]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Character Assassin (comic story)|Character Assassin]]'')

When [[Balmoral Castle]] was taken by the [[Judoon]] in [[1902]], Captain Carruthers compared the Doctor's explanation to the works of Wells. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Revenge of the Judoon (novel)|Revenge of the Judoon]]'')

[[Tommy Morgan]] had read ''[[The First Men in the Moon]]'', and was therefore unfazed when the [[Eighth Doctor]] claimed to be an alien in [[1928]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Far from Home (short story)|Far from Home]]'')

In [[1942]], [[Isabella Zemanova]] was familiar with Wells's works, even though she suspected they might be illegal under [[Joseph Stalin]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Beast of Stalingrad (novel)|The Beast of Stalingrad]]'')

[[River Song]] tried to explain to [[Bertie Potts (clone)|Bertie]] the existence of other civilisations by referring to works of H. G. Wells, but he thought of another book about a hole to the centre of the Earth. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Boundless Sea (audio story)|The Boundless Sea]]'')

== Behind the scenes ==
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' owes an obvious debt to Wells. The idea of a [[time machine]] originated in Wells's ''[[The Time Machine]]'', and the plot of ''[[The Daleks (TV story)|The Daleks]]'' has a lot of similarity to {{w|George Pal}}'s {{w|The Time Machine (1960 film)|movie adaptation}} of ''The Time Machine''. The [[Dalek]]s themselves resemble the Martians of ''[[The War of the Worlds]]''. So unsurprisingly, a number of affectionate references to H. G. Wells have found their way into the series.
* Though ''Timelash'' suggests otherwise, in reality, it was not H. G. Wells who coined the term "science fiction", but {{w|Hugo Gernsback}}.
* {{cs|Timewyrm: Exodus (novel)}} references real-world [[Nazi]] plans, discovered after [[World War II]], to [[arrest]] many significant British figures during [[Operation Sealion]]. Known as {{w|The Black Book (list)|The Black Book}} in real life, Wells was on that list.
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