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Ninth Doctor Chronicles: The Bleeding Heart
(Cavan Scott) |
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 Name: The Compassionate
Format: Audio
Time of Origin: Unspecified; manifested on the planet Galen in the distant future
Appearances: "Ninth Doctor Chronicles: The Bleeding Heart"
Doctors: Ninth Doctor
Companions: None
History: The tragedy of the Compassionate is that they would have superficially been The Doctor's allies, if it weren't for the horrors they suffered due to the Time War leaving them hopelessly insane.
It is unclear if the Compassionate had another name before they received their current title, but they were known for their compassion and care towards all living things, allegedly so ancient that they were old when the universe was young. Tragically, this made them a target during the Time War, with the greater tragedy that they were targeted by the Time Lords led by Rassilon. Already willing to destroy planets to deprive the Daleks of potential resources, Rassilon justified his actions against the Compassionate as a pre-emptive assault to ensure that the Daleks couldn't use them as a weapon against the Time Lords later. This rift was subsequently sealed at the heart of the planet Galen, apparently ensuring that the Compassionate would remain trapped.
At some point after the Time War, Galen had become a planet known for ensuring peaceful diplomatic talks, due to the influence of the Compassionate making everyone more receptive to hearing the other's point of view. However, things became more complicated when the Horajians - a race of hippo-like aliens - came to Galen for the latest peace talks, as the influence of the Compassionate became essentially corrupted. Where they had previous just encouraged people to adopt a more even perspective, the Compassionate now drove those under its influence to stop pain by killing those who were suffering, even if it was just because they felt frustrated by current circumstances; a common occurrence was for those under the influence of the Compassionate to declare 'I hear your pain, I feel your pain, I must heal your pain' before trying to kill their targets.
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Ninth Doctor |
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Relatively fresh from the aftermath of the Time War, the Ninth Doctor arrived on Galen and was able to take part in the investigation by using the psychic paper to establish himself as an investigator. He was aided by Adriana Jarsdel, a news reporter for Cosmic Nine with psychic abilities that she tried to suppress with pills, but these abilities helped her resist the influence of the Compassionate. When The Doctor encouraged Adriana to tap into her psychic abilities to help him find what was causing these events after the rest of the resort succumbed to the Compassionate's influence, she was able to trace the rift where the Compassionate were trapped, their influence 'leaking' out into the wider universe.
Having traced the source of the rift, The Doctor was able to modify his current sonic screwdriver - still the version used by his previous incarnation during the Time War - to explode and seal the rift, regretting that he had to trap the Compassionate like that but aware that it would continue to be a threat if it wasn't stopped now. However, while The Doctor had intended to just throw the screwdriver into the rift, the device had suffered water damage during an earlier confrontation with one of the Compassionate's victims, meaning that The Doctor would need to actually physically enter the rift and set it off from the inside as he couldn't program a delay long enough to throw the screwdriver into the rift so it would explode on the other side. With Adriana's psychic powers making her aware that The Doctor had more to do in the universe - specifically sensing that he would soon meet a companion who would help him heal from the emotional damage of the war - she took the screwdriver and jumped into the rift herself. This left the Compassionate sealed away for good, quieting their influence on the world at the cost of Adriana's life.
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