The Special Executive (conversationally contracted as Special Exec) were a mercenary group of parahumans led by Wardog. They worked across time and throughout the multiverse.
In the early days of the Time Lords, the Special Executive was hired by Gallifrey to retrieve the assassin Fenris. Wardog, alongside Time Lady Rema-Du, did the retrieval, and Viridian the Brainfeeler scanned Fenris' mind to identify his employers as the Order of the Black Sun. At that moment, agents of the Order attacked; Viridian was killed and Wardog had his left arm blown off. (COMIC: 4-D War)
Ten years later, the Executive — Wardog, Zeitgeist, Cobweb and Millenium — escorted Rema-Du to a trade negotiation that involved the Sontarans and a third party. The third party turned out to be the Order from before they declared war on Gallifrey. The Sontaran ambassador Brilox wiped Millenium's mind with a psy-snare and brainwashed her into murder the Black Sun Elder. Wardog killed her in a failed attempt to stop the murder — and because the Executive were employed by the Time Lords, the Order of the Black Sun believed this to be a deliberate assault and declared war. (COMIC: Black Sun Rising)
Behind the scenes
- Alan Moore, their creator, did not write any further Doctor Who strips, preventing him from using most of the material he had planned for the Executive.[1] He went on to use them in the Captain Britain strip of Marvel UK's The Daredevils — one of multiple crossovers between Marvel Comics and Doctor Who by the UK branch. They made two subsequent cameos after Alan Moore finished writing Captain Britain, one in Captain Britain Monthly, and one in Marvel's Excalibur, the former showing that Wardog was not the first leader of the Executive.
- Lance Parkin's short story Executive Action, originally published the charity anthology Walking in Eternity, explained that the parahumans of the Special Executive were the result of Rassilon's first experiments with Looms, and Rassilon formed the Special Executive to do the Time Lords' "dirty jobs". Later, when Rassilon ordered a purge of the Womb-born (as seen in Cold Fusion), the Special Executive fled Gallifrey and became an independent team.
- This backstory has been accepted by many Marvel fans[2][3] and was referenced in the Faction Paradox short story Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, where "the first parahuman brigades" are listed among other elements from Rassilon's early reign. Marvel has also acknowledged the information in their official handbooks, with the entry for the character Saturnyne in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #10 mentioning that she "hired Gallifreyan parahuman interdimensional mercenaries, the Special Executive", and the entry for the Technet (a rival team to the Special Executive which included some of their members) in X-Men: Phoenix Force Handbook explicitly identifying said members as "loom-born Gallifreyans."
- Daniel O'Mahony's A Rag and a Bone, published in the 2003 fanzine Myth Makers Presents: Essentials, mentions "Dawn Brigades of parahumans" fighting "cat people" in Gallifrey's past. The story features a dog-faced parahuman in "Gallifreyan scarlet" as a veteran of Gallifrey's First Time War and an assistant of Sabbath.