Maxwell Edison

Maxwell Edison
Species:	Human
Place of origin:	Earth
First appearance:	Stars Fell on Stockbridge
Appearances:	see list
Main voice actor:	Mark Williams

Maxwell Edison was a middle-aged resident of Stockbridge, UFO enthusiast and ally of the Doctor in his fifth, eighth, tenth and twelfth incarnations.

Max was twice offered a chance to travel with the Doctor in his TARDIS. He refused both times, preferring instead to run the Stockbridge Division of the Bureau for Interplanetary Liaison, a group of people extending a welcoming hand to visiting aliens. He was, in essence, the Stockbridge "UFO chaser", viewed by his neighbours as a crackpot.

Biography

Max was born in 1956. (COMIC: The Stockbridge Showdown)

The Fifth Doctor first met Max when the latter stumbled into the TARDIS in Wells Wood in the early 1980s. The pair travelled to an abandoned alien ship orbiting Earth, where they went ghost hunting for a mysterious entity. (COMIC: Stars Fell on Stockbridge)

Later, Max encountered the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa when Stockbridge was closed in a time bubble, and helped them destroy the time loop. (AUDIO: The Eternal Summer)

Practically the only resident of Stockbridge who believed in his cause was Izzy Sinclair, who joined his organisation. It was through Max that Izzy was introduced to the Eighth Doctor and became one of his longest-serving companions. (COMIC: Endgame)

Max met the Tenth Doctor and Majenta Pryce years later when the TARDIS again landed in Stockbridge. They defeated an alien entity; Max's body was taken over in the process. After the Doctor and Majenta left, Max was attacked while on his motorbike by the Crimson Hand, who were looking for Majenta. (COMIC: The Stockbridge Child)

Max met the Twelfth Doctor again during Max's sixtieth birthday in Stockbridge in 2016. Max discovered that the villagers had been frozen in time; the Doctor explained that Max was unaffected because he had flown in the TARDIS before. After Max was captured by Gol Clutha, the Doctor and Max were taken to Josiah W. Dogbolter inside St Justinian's Church. The being Dogbolter believed had frozen Stockbridge to lure the Doctor into a trap was in fact the shapeshifting Whifferdill Frobisher, and not Chiyoko as he originally thought. After Frobisher had incapacitated Dogbolter's henchmen, Max punched Dogbolter, saving the Doctor's life. At the same time, Izzy arrived at the church, knocking Dogbolter out with the complete X-Files Blu-ray. Dogbolter was subsequently arrested and his assets seized when Sharon Allen caught his confession to murder on camera. Izzy realised that the Doctor made a trap for Dogbolter, and made Dogbolter think that it was Dogbolter's trap for the Doctor. The Doctor also explained that he froze the villagers as "the simplest way to keep everyone safe". To celebrate Max's birthday, the Doctor took Max and some of the Doctor's friends to the city of Cornucopia. (COMIC: The Stockbridge Showdown)

Behind the scenes

• Maxwell Edison's name comes from the Beatles song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". This was referenced in-universe in the audio story The Eternal Summer, when Lizzie Corrigan pointed out the connection. He joked that he was lucky — he was originally going to be called Eleanor Rigby. This must have been a coincidence in-universe, as Max would have been thirteen years old by the time Abbey Road was released.
• Although (originally) a comics-only character, Max had a certain degree of commonality with the televised character of Wilfred Mott.
• He made his audio debut in Big Finish's The Eternal Summer, part of the "Stockbridge trilogy".

External links

• Maxwell Edison at Marvel Database
• Maxwell Edison at comicbookdb.com