Professor Chronotis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Doctor Who character | |
|---|---|
 Denis Carey as Professor Chronotis |
|
| Professor Chronotis | |
| Affiliated with | Time Lords |
| Race | Time Lord |
| Home planet | Gallifrey |
| Home era | Gallifrey era |
| First appearance | Shada |
| Last appearance | Shada |
| Portrayed by | Denis Carey (television) James Fox (webcast) |
Professor Urban Chronotis is a fictional character created by Douglas Adams. He originally appeared in the Doctor Who serial Shada, starring Tom Baker and Lalla Ward. However, since the filming of the latter was never completed due to industrial action, the public was not introduced to him until the publication of Adams' novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency in 1987.
An incomplete version of Shada was eventually released on VHS, and in 2003 it was remade as an animated webcast by Big Finish Productions for the BBC. Professor Chronotis was played by Denis Carey in the unaired 1980 version of Shada, and by James Fox in the webcast remake, which was also released as an audio play on CD by Big Finish.
Chronotis — or "Reg" as he is known — holds the post of Regius Professor of Chronology at Cambridge University. He is also a Fellow of the fictional St. Cedd's College, Cambridge, where he has resided for many centuries. In the Shada version, Chronotis is a retired Time Lord and old friend of the Doctor, living out his remaining centuries in academic seclusion. Owing to repeated time travel and advanced age, he is extremely forgetful and absent-minded. He often does not remember which time period he has travelled nor the reason why. Among other things, Reg has a liking for tea and silly jokes. It is also revealed during the course of Shada that Chronotis was a Time Lord criminal named Salyavin, who was imprisoned on and escaped from the prison planetoid Shada.
The Dirk Gently version of the character is almost identical to the Shada version, though the novel contains no references to Time Lords. Here Chronotis is so old and forgetful that he has no idea who or what he originally was, though he has vague memories of Cleopatra (who he claims wore outrageous earrings and reeked of cat food). His Chair of Chronology was created by mad king George III who was terrified that if time were to start flowing backwards, all the bad experiences of his life might recur. In fact, central to the book's theme are the three questions the King asked Reg upon his appointment; if one could travel through time, if there was a reason one thing happened after another, and if there was any way of stopping it. (The answers are, in order, yes, no and maybe, which leads to Dirk deducing the existence of the time machine as his associate, Richard, was only told about the second and third questions but given all three answers.)
In both versions, Chronotis is a clandestine time-traveller, whose time machine (or TARDIS, as they are termed in Doctor Who) is disguised as his college rooms.
In The End of the World the Doctor stated that his homeworld had been destroyed. Whether Chronotis was on Gallifrey at the time is unknown, but the Doctor also declared that no Time Lords, aside from himself, were left in the universe.
