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Cassandra
(The End of the World) |
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 Name: Lady Cassandra O'Brian Dot Delta Seven
Format:
Television show
Time of Origin: Earth and 'New Earth', the year
5.5/Apple/26, approximately five billion years in the future.
Appearances: "The
End of the World" and New
Earth".
Doctors:
Ninth
Doctor and Tenth
Doctor
Companions: Rose Tyler
History: Cassandra originates from approximately
five billions years in the future, at a time when humanity had become so
spread across the universe that practically every remaining 'human being'
in existence was, in some way or another, a hybrid with another alien race.
Cassandra, however, regarded herself as 'the last human' due to the fact
that her father and mother were both born and raised on Earth, believing
that every other human being in existence was just a corrupted hybrid of
human and other species, and thus only she had the right to call herself
'human'. The most hypocritical aspect of her attitude, however, was the
fact that Cassandra was so determined to retain her 'youth' that she'd
had countless plastic surgery operations - around 708 at last count - leaving
her as nothing more than a piece of skin with a mouth and eyes connected
to a brain in a lower jar. Despite the fact that she now looked more like
a talking, upright trampoline than anything else - constantly requiring
moisturisation to prevent her drying out - Cassandra still regarded
herself as a 'pure' human, believing that every other 'human being' was
only a mongrel of humanity and other species, and hence was inferior. This
attitude also contributed to the numerous 'unsolved deaths' that surrounded
her life, such as her attempts to keep her past secret by killing anybody
who wrote an autobiography of her.
Eventually, her superiority complex brought her into
conflict with the Ninth
Doctor and Rose Tyler while the two of them
were visiting the far future to witness the end of the world from
Platform One, accompanied by some of the richest people in the universe;
being present at the end of the world was now one of the great society
locations, such as being present at the opening of a location like
the London Eye or the Empire State Building. Unfortunately, no sooner
had The Doctor and Rose began to mingle with the other guests - The
Doctor striking up a particular friendship with Jabe, a sentient
tree from the forests of Cheem - then the steward of Platform One
was killed by strange, robot spiders, who lowered the shields that
prevented the intense sunlight incinerating everybody on Platform
One in his cabin, destroying him instantly.
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Cassandra
(New Earth) |
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While The Doctor and Jabe attempted to investigate the
death, Rose tried to chat with Cassandra, but was quickly disgusted by
Cassandra's superiority complex; she continued to regard herself as human
despite the fact that she'd had everything human taken away long ago, and
actively resented Rose's insistence that she had more right to call herself
the 'last human' than Cassandra did. Cassandra attempted to kill Rose by
lowering the solar panels, but The Doctor managed to reactivate them, simultaneously
acquiring one of Cassandra's spiders and using it to work out who was behind
these events. Cassandra revealed that she'd originally intended to engineer
a hostage situation, but, with events as they were, she decided to just
detonate the spiders, destroying the force fields, and subsequently teleport
out of Platform One and make the most of the fact that she had investments
in rival companies that would increase with the death of everyone on Platform
One. Aided by Jabe, The Doctor managed to activate the manual reset switch,
although it cost Jabe her life due to the intense heat, and reversed Cassandra's
teleportation signal, bringing her back to Platform One without her attendants.
Without anyone to moisturise her, Cassandra's skin dried out and she exploded,
The Doctor showing no sympathy for her; everything had to die, and Cassandra
had cheated death for long enough as far as he was concerned.
However,
this was not the end for Cassandra; although her 'body' was destroyed,
her brain remained intact, and she was able to acquire a new form after
her eyes were recovered (Although the new body used skin taken from her
original back, meaning that she was essentially talking out of her arse).
Moving to New Earth with a genetically engineered follower called 'Chip',
she waited in secret for several years before New Earth was visited by
the newly-regenerated Tenth
Doctor and Rose, responding to a message sent
by the mysterious 'Face of Boe'. In an attempt to both get revenge on Rose
and learn the secret being concealed by the Sisters of Plentitude - cat-like
aliens who ran the most advanced hospital in existence - Cassandra transferred
her mind into Rose's body, subsequently joining The Doctor in his exploration
of the hospital, where he learned that the Sisters had genetically created
an entire species of humans, each and every one of them suffering from
pretty much every disease in existence in an attempt to help the Sisterhood
learn how to treat the diseases.
Fortunately,
The Doctor worked out what had happened to Rose - due to
little details such as Cassandra's anachronistic technical knowledge, poor
accent and
lack of compassion - but it was too late to stop Cassandra
releasing some of the plague carriers as a distraction, little realising
that they were
so disease-ridden that a single touch would infect and kill
anyone else they made contact with. Forced to jump into the body of one
of the plague
carriers while The Doctor got himself and 'Rose' to safety,
Cassandra was briefly shaken by the overwhelming loneliness the carriers
felt - all through
their lives, they had never been able to even touch another
living being. Having gathered all the intravenous drips on the ward they'd
managed to
reach, The Doctor threw them all together to create a universal
pathogen, thus curing the entire population of plague carriers and creating
a new
species of humanity- one that Cassandra couldn't deny, as
she'd helped to create them in the first place.
With that
crisis resolved and the Face of Boe having departed - revealing to The Doctor that the two of them would meet one last time - Cassandra jumped
into Chip's body, which quickly began to fail due to the stress of the
recent situation. However, Cassandra's time with The Doctor had convinced
her that it was time to accept her death, and, in gratitude for what she'd
done, The Doctor took her back in time, where she could see herself in
her prime once more. Having told her past self that she was beautiful,
Cassandra collapsed, dying in the arms of her past self as The Doctor and
Rose departed. |
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