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Pandad IV (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) led Gallifrey as First Time Lord (TV: The War Games, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) and President of the Council. (TV: The Three Doctors)
The 406th sitting President, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) he lived through several incarnations while in office (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey et al.) despite his tenure ultimately being far shorter than nine hundred years. (TV: The Deadly Assassin) The entirety of the Third Doctor's exile on Earth occurred during his time as President and he eventually lifted it after the First Omega Crisis on the advice of Chancellor Socra. (TV: The Three Doctors, PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey)
Struck by tragedy when the Rani's experiments with giant mice caused him to regenerate, along with the deaths of Socra and his cat, (TV: The Mark of the Rani, PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) his new administration proved to be short-lived when he was assassinated by his new Chancellor who had been conspiring with the intent of ascending to the highest office after meeting the Decayed Master, an act that gave way to the most dangerous crisis in Time Lord history. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
Biography
Beginnings as President
Before she was recruited by the Celestial Intervention Agency, Lady Serena had been studying the records of the most recent presidential election in the Capitol Library, attempting to work out the truth of what actually happened and where it lay between the lines of the official accounts. (PROSE: World Game)
The President presided over the trial of the Second Doctor for violating the non-interference policy that resulted in his exile to Earth and forced regeneration into his third incarnation. (TV: The War Games; PROSE: The Three Doctors) Before then, he also led the trial of the War Lord. The tribunal found him guilty and sentenced him to dematerialisation as if he had never existed. During the Doctor's trial, he revealed that Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot would be sent back to their own times with no memories of their travels. He also pronounced the Doctor's sentence but after he rejected the choices affored to him for his third incarnation's appearance, the President bluntly told the Doctor that the choice would be made for him before enacting his punishment. (TV: The War Games)
This account of events was substantially re-edited for the public record. The true record was eventually released under the provisions of the Gallifreyan Freedom of Information Act. The President of the Court told the Doctor that the theft of a TARDIS was a relatively minor offence that could be pardoned but told the Doctor that the Court's hands were tied on the second matter. Instead of telling the Doctor he would be exiled, the President instead told him that his prolonged and temporal interference drew attention to the the very existence of the Time Lords and that the safety of their race had lain in Silence and secrecy for many years. He went to surmise that offences of this nature were capital crimes before reluctantly sentencing him to death. The charges were commuted to a period of exile after the Doctor struck a deal with Sardon and agreed to work for the CIA. (PROSE: World Game)
Other accounts indicated that it was Councillor Goth that presided over the trial, with Socra and Adelphi also present. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey, Future Imperfect)
Trouble with the Master
After the Master arrived on Earth, seeking revenge against the Doctor for past deeds, Socra persuaded Pandad to send a member of the High Council to warn the Doctor. (TV: Terror of the Autons; PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) After this, the Celestial Intervention Agency made constant use of him as a free agent. The Doctor resented this but knew that it was only a matter of time before the CIA, probably through Socra, convinced the President to release him from exile. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey)
Having regenerated, along with Second Time Lord Adelphi and Third Time Lord Socra, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon, The Legacy of Gallifrey) the First Time Lord was alerted that a report on the Doomsday Weapon had gone missing from the Time Lords' files and that only the Master could have taken it. Pandad suggested using the Doctor to deal with the problem and, after his advisors cast doubt over the likelihood of his cooperation, he told them that they would restore his freedom for as long as it served their purpose. They sent the Doctor's TARDIS, containing the Doctor and Jo Grant, to the planet Uxarieus in the year 2472. (TV: Colony in Space)
The Omega Crisis and dealings with the Fourth Doctor
While the identity of the aggressor was unknown, (TV: The Three Doctors) as Omega's anti-matter universe was beyond the reach of the Matrix, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) during the First Omega Crisis the President decided to use the last of their power to summon the Doctor's first two incarnations to help the current third incarnation to resolve this crisis. (TV: The Three Doctors)
His decision to break the Laws of Time met with criticism from his Chancellor, but the President had faith in his gamble since the Time Lords didn't have any better solution since the energy drain was difficult for them to sort out.
After this gamble proved successful, the President rescinded the Third Doctor's exile on Earth and restored his ability to travel through time and space, (TV: The Three Doctors) having been advised to do so by his High Chancellor Socra, who, when the President demanded an explanation, revealed to him the existence of (and his allegiance to) the Celestial Intervention Agency. Pandad decided to keep it secret from the population despite the CIA's offer to go public, feeling that it might risk lessening the Gallifreyan people's faith in the Presidency. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey)
On Jewel, the President was alerted when the time thread of the Fourth Doctor's TARDIS was lost. He ordered an inter-galactic time search to find it. Shazar went to Jewel to convince the Time Lords that the Doctor was in league with the Daleks. The President pretended to accept the lie and allowed Shazar to return to his Dalek masters with cirenium to fuel the TARDIS' time circuits. In fact, cirenium could destroy timeships and the President had fooled Shazar into aiding in the destruction of the fleet of TARDISes the Daleks were building. As punishment, the Time Lords shrunk Shazar and placed him in a jar, with the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith leaving him on a primitive planet so that he could do no harm. (COMIC: Return of the Daleks)
The same President Pandad IV (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) once fell victim an an experiment conducted by the Rani. It had resulted in some of her lab mice growing to an enormous size: The mice then ate the President's pet, a cat, and bit the President himself, triggering a regeneration. The Rani exiled herself and became a renegade as a result of the incident. (TV: The Mark of the Rani) This ended the tradition of Lord Presidents of the Time Lords possessing intelligent cats for pets and advisors, a tradition which had begun with Rassilon himself and would not be brought back until Flavia (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) became Acting President after the Fifth Doctor ran off on the Time Lords. (TV: The Five Doctors)
Final incarnation and assassination
In the end, the President served in this position for much less than 900 years, the length of time that President Pandak III served. His High Chancellor was Goth, who it was widely assumed would succeed him as President. However, he decided that he would elect a different Time Lord as his successor, which he told Chancellor Goth. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
Pandad IV at the time of his assassination. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
In or some time after Gallifreyan Year 6241.1 (AUDIO: Neverland) was the Presidential Resignation Day, at which the President was to name his successor and read his resignation honours list, which contained some names that he believed would be found surprising. However, Goth allied with the Decayed Master in a ploy to gain the Presidency for himself. Before being able to name his successor, the President was was assassinated by Chancellor Goth and the Master. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
Personality
Chancellor Goth described the President as wise and beloved. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
Appearance
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Pandad IV during the Doomsday Weapon affair. (TV: Colony in Space)
to be added
Behind the scenes
Connections
The novelisation of The Three Doctors stated that the President in that story was also Bernard Horsfall's character, the First Time Lord, in The War Games, presumably in a prior regeneration. Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon seemed to support this version of events by establishing First Time Lord as a rank synonymous with Lord President.
The matter was confused somewhat when The Deadly Assassin was first broadcast after these two stories were published featuring Horsfall as Chancellor Goth. Common theory stated that Horsfall's two Time Lord characters were one and the same which ignored the previous revelation, eventually being written into a valid source by Gary Russell in the 1985 short story The Legacy of Gallifrey.
Casting
The casting of Llewellyn Rees in the role of Lord President for The Deadly Assassin was an in-joke, as Rees had been General Secretary of the actors' union, Equity, for many years.
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