Dr. Judson was a mathematician who worked on the ULTIMA project during World War II.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Judson was educated at school with the future Commander A. H. Millington during the second decade of the 20th century, and the two became close friends for the next thirty years.
However, for most of that period, it was a relationship that became increasingly bitter. Judson suffered a terrible accident deliberately caused by Millington on the school rugby field in the 1920s, as a result of which his spine was fractured and he had to use a wheelchair. (PROSE: The Curse of Fenric) Millington kept watch over his friend, later claiming to have "given him everything", but Judson's dependency eventually developed into a cynical mutual loathing between the two by the dawn of World War Two twenty years later. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
After the outbreak of the war, Judson was approached to work on translation issues surrounding the Bell, an alien teleportation device used in the Wyrresters' plot to take over the Earth, before being assigned to the ULTIMA project. (PROSE: The Crawling Terror)
Towards the end of World War II, Judson had, despite his setbacks, become a brilliant mathematician and developed the ULTIMA Machine, a complicated device capable of deciphering German naval codes. He was assigned to a military base under the command of Millington and in the care of Nurse Crane — in Northumberland. While the machine proved crucial to the British war effort, Judson himself became increasingly obsessed with local carvings in the nearby church crypt of St. Jude's Church at Maiden's Point. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
The coming of Fenric[]
The arrival of the Seventh Doctor in 1943 brought Judson's obsession and instability to a head. Millington, also increasingly unstable and convinced in the reality of the local Viking myths, used the ULTIMA machine to decode the final inscription on a flask holding the trapped remains of Fenric. This triggered the entity's release and in a flash of electrical current transmitted its being into Judson, killing him, but keeping the body alive.
Using Judson's body to organise the reawakened Haemovores, two of which he allowed to kill Judson's nurse, Crane, in revenge for all the humiliation she had forced on Judson over the years, Fenric eventually discarded Judson's body when it proved too weak to sustain a mental challenge — in the form of a chess puzzle, set by the Doctor as part of the renewal of their thousand-year contest. The body and the final remains of Judson were destroyed during a final explosion at the base. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
Behind the scenes[]
- Judson has never been identified with a first name, either in The Curse of Fenric or any spin-off media.
- Edward Hardwicke, Martin Jarvis and David McCallum were considered for the role before Dinsdale Landen was cast.
- The character was heavily inspired by Alan Turing.
