The prisoners of Shada were stored each in their own separate cryogenic cell, alive, but frozen in time, in perpetual imprisonment. (PROSE: Shada) Prisoners had dragon tattoos which snapped upon their release. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet)
During the War in Heaven, when the Great Houses began using their prison planet more often, War criminals began to fit themselves with ice-proof secondary nervous systems to help them in case they were sent there. Realising that this made it too easy to break out of cryogenics, the Great Houses started directly linking prisoners' nervous systems into self-repeating time-frames through the convict tattoos on their upper right arms. (AUDIO: Movers)
The villainous Skagra managed a successful jail break of the prisoners while in search of Salyavin, the notorious Time Lord criminal who had developed a means of projecting his own thoughts into anyone's mind. Skagra believed that with this power, he could impose his own thoughts and will on the universe. Salyavin, though, had already escaped and was living a peaceful life as Professor Chronotis of the University of Cambridge. (PROSE: Shada)[additional sources needed]
The Eleventh Doctor visited Shada in search of the Master's TARDIS (placed there after the Last Great Time War), thinking the Master had framed him for the downfall of the Overcaste. The Doctor, alongside Alice Obiefune, Abslom Daak, and The Squire visited Stormcage Containment Facility to retrieve River Song, whom the Doctor believed could help enter Shada and find the TARDIS. After obtaining a stargate he left for himself which led the path to Shada, the Doctor and the others entered by crashing the Then and the Now onto the quantum wall containing the prison. Although the Doctor forced himself to forget the planet's name so he would not be tempted to return, upon arriving there, he remembered it. (COMIC: The One)
While searching for Salyavin, Skagra accessed the records of war criminal Rungar and mass-murderer Sabjatrik who were also prisoners in perpetuity. (WC: Shada, AUDIO: Shada) According to one account, Lady Scintilla was imprisoned in Shada for "conspiring with Carrionites". (PROSE: Shada)
Grandfather Paradox was imprisoned on Shada. (Legend had it that he had been imprisoned rather than executed because "everyone was more afraid of him dead than alive".) Early during Romana's Presidency, she suffered an epileptic fit under the influence of the Carnival Queen and signed an executive order freeing three hundred prisoners from Shada, including the Grandfather, who led the freed prisoners. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet) When Cousin Justine was tried and convicted by the ruling Houses, since she held the Grandfather's shadow, she was sent to the prison-world to finish the Grandfather's sentence. (AUDIO: In the Year of the Cat) However, she was rescued. (AUDIO: A Labyrinth of Histories)
Devonire began his search for Grandfather Paradox's arm in the prison, and he was later imprisoned there in perpetuity. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
The Heretic was either killed by the Time Lords or imprisoned on Shada after plotting to regenerate the universe. (AUDIO: The Two Masters)
Behind the scenes
Shada as it was originally meant to appear.
In the unaired serial, Shada was originally going to hold a Dalek, a Cyberman and a Zygon, but the scenes set in Shada's interior were never recorded.
The completed TV serial had the recognisable shadows of some aliens in its cells including an Ice Warrior and a Zygon.
