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John Lennon
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John Winston Lennon was a Liverpudlian musician and songwriter known for his tenure with the Beatles. He later started another band with his second wife Yoko Ono. His work was one of the most widely known and studied music of the late industrial era and early information age.[source needed]

Biography[]

The Sixth Doctor jammed with John Lennon, along with the rest of the Beatles in Hamburg before they were big. (PROSE: Gone Too Soon)

Lennon first performed as a member of The Beatles at the Cavern Club in 1961. The Eleventh Doctor told Alice Obiefune that most of the audience were time travellers - including the Lennon that performed. (COMIC: What He Wants...)

In 1963, the Tenth Doctor took Martha Jones to see a performance of Lennon playing with the Beatles. (COMIC: Signs of Life)

Later that year, Susan Foreman and her friend Cedric listened to several Beatles songs that Lennon wrote on her transistor radio. (AUDIO: Hunters of Earth)

In early 1964, one of the songs that Lennon wrote for the Beatles', "I Want to Hold Your Hand", was knocked off the top of the British charts by the Dave Clark Five song "Glad All Over" which peaked at No. 6 in the United States. (AUDIO: Threshold)

By 13 July 1964, Lennon and the Beatles had sold out the first leg of their United Kingdom tour. (TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?)

Lennon and the other Beatles performed their song "Ticket to Ride" on the 13 May 1965 instalment of Top of the Pops. The First Doctor and his companions Vicki Pallister, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright watched it via the Time-Space Visualiser. (TV: The Chase) According to one account which claimed that the Visualiser was a hoax, the people seen on the Visualiser were not the genuine historical figures but human slaves of the Pursuer-Daleks who were made to re-enact the event as a deception for the Doctor and his companions. (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide)

On 12 November 1969, newborn Paul Magrs dreamt that John and Yoko attended a party hosted by Dr Oho. (PROSE: In the Sixties)

In 1969, the Seventh Doctor's companion Ace prevented Lennon and the other Beatles from being murdered during their Let it Be rooftop concert at the Apple Records building in London. (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird) At some point during the concert, time distortion from the Rift Manipulator transported Lennon and the Beatles to the roof of the same building in the 2000s.[nb 1] They were sent back after Torchwood opened up the Cardiff Rift. (TV: End of Days)

Lennon or not

An older Lennon in a dream state. (COMIC: Forever Dreaming)

For some time, Lennon was trapped in Psychspace after dreaming about it too much. He was only freed with the help of the Eleventh Doctor's companion Amy Pond. (COMIC: Forever Dreaming)

Mark David Chapman, manipulated by Huitzilin, shot Lennon outside his hotel on 8 December 1980. This act silenced Lennon's life. (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird)

Shortly after he died, Lennon told the Doctor that "talent borrows, genius steals." (PROSE: Eye of Heaven)

In the City of the Saved, Lennon continued having a close relationship with Yoko Ono. Krisztina-Judit Németh guessed that they may have been at a masked ball held by Allisheer St Marx. (PROSE: Unification Theory)

Undated events[]

The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble went to see Lennon perform with the Beatles at the Cavern Club. Donna got him to sign the future album 1 on CD for Donna's mum. (COMIC: The Time of My Life)

Minor references[]

Susan Foreman liked John Lennon, and wrote in her diary that she found him attractive. (PROSE: Time and Relative)

The DJ of Tranquil Repose had a poster of John Lennon in his broadcasting studio. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks)

The Tenth Doctor cited John Lennon as a musician who had become a legend by dying in tragic circumstances, and asked the members of Pakafroon Wabster if they wanted the same thing. (COMIC: Interstellar Overdrive)

The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond travelled to London, 1963 because Amy had wanted to see John Lennon play. (GAME: City of the Daleks)

Helena believed that Lennon was cute. (PROSE: In Search of Doctor X)

Michael quoted the John Lennon song "Beautiful Boy" to Peri Brown. (AUDIO: Paradise 5)

Alternate timeline[]

In an alternate timeline created by Lenny Kruger in which the Common Men rose to prominence in place of the Beatles, Lennon was part of a group called the Famous Five, which was a joke name because there were only four of them: him, two Petes and Chas. (AUDIO: 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men)

John Lennon The Devil's Chord

John Lennon talking to the Fifteenth Doctor. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

In the altered 1963 created by the summoning of Maestro in 1925, John Lennon and the rest of the Beatles were giving music itself 'one last hurrah' while humanity as a whole gave up on it due to Maestro's influence. Their songs were very simplified and basic as a result of the 'songs in their hearts' being slowly devoured by the entity. Ruby Sunday and the Fifteenth Doctor arrived in the time period due to the former's desire to see the Beatles record their first album, and subsequently spoke to Paul McCartney and John Lennon respectively to learn why history was altered. The two were drawn into conflict with Maestro, with Lennon and McCartney ultimately banishing Maestro when they discovered the piano with the partial chord of banishment on it and completed it. With Maestro's banishment from reality, the timeline reverted to normal, Lennon joining the rest of the Beatles in a rendition of "Twist at the End" in the studio. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

Behind the scenes[]

Dalek John Lennon

Lennon with a Dalek.

  • John Lennon, in a manner of speaking, played himself on Doctor Who in the form of archival footage of a Beatles TV appearance shown in The Chase.
  • In 1965, John Lennon attended a film festival, where he was at one point famously photographed with a Dalek looming behind him.
  • John Lennon is one of three historical figures who are available as playable characters in the online game TARDIS Tennis.
  • He was played by Stephen MacKenna in Birth of the Beatles and Christopher Eccleston in Lennon Naked. He was also played by Mark McGann - Paul's brother - in John and Yoko: A Love Story.

Footnotes[]

  1. Episodes 11-13 of the first series of Torchwood are set anywhere from 2007-2010 as a result of conflicting evidence shown in the episodes Ghost Machine, Greeks Bearing Gifts, Random Shoes, To the Last Man, Reset, Adrift, Fragments, Exit Wounds, and The New World. As episode 10, Out of Time, is set at the end of December, this means that episodes 11-13 are almost certainly set the year after episodes 1-10.
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