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| {{Afd-merge to|Shada (Doctor Who)|Professor Chronotis|26 April 2025}}
| | #REDIRECT [[Shada (Doctor Who)]] |
| {{Short description|Fictional character in Doctor Who}}
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| {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
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| {{More citations needed|date=January 2017}}
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| {{Infobox character
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| | name = Professor Chronotis
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| | series = [[Doctor Who]] {{no italic|and}} [[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]
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| | image = chronotis.jpg
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| | image_size = 200px
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| | caption = {{small|Denis Carey as Professor Chronotis}}
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| | portrayer = {{ubl|[[Denis Carey (actor)|Denis Carey]] (television)|[[James Fox]] (webcast)|[[Andrew Sachs]] (radio)}}
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| | species = Time Lord
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| | affiliation = [[Time Lord]]s
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| | home = [[Gallifrey]]
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| | lbl21 = Home era
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| | data21 = [[Rassilon|Rassilon Era]]
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| | lbl22 = Appears in
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| | data22 = ''[[Shada (Doctor Who)|Shada]]''
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| }}
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| '''Professor Urban Chronotis''' is a [[fiction]]al [[Character (arts)|character]] created by [[Douglas Adams]]. He was originally created for the 1979 ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''[[Shada (Doctor Who)|Shada]]'', starring [[Tom Baker]] and [[Lalla Ward]]. However, the filming of the serial was never completed due to a [[strike action|strike]]. Adams then re-used the character and many of the themes from ''Shada'' in his novel ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'', first published in 1987. 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.
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| ==Shada==
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| <!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Chronotis (Shada).png|left|thumb|Chronotis as depicted in the webcast version of ''Shada''.]] -->In 1992, ''Shada'' was completed through the use of linking narration by Tom Baker and released on [[home video]]. In this version, the character was played by [[Denis Carey (actor)|Denis Carey]].
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| In 2003, ''Shada'' was remade as an animated webcast by [[Big Finish Productions]] for the [[BBC]]. Professor Chronotis was played by [[James Fox]] in this version, which was also released as an [[radio drama|audio play]] on [[compact disc|CD]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shada/ BBC Cult Page. Doctor Who. Webcasts. Shada. 24 October 2014.]</ref>
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| Chronotis holds the post of [[Regius Professor]] of [[Chronology]] at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]]. He is also a [[Fellow#Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin|Fellow]] of the fictional St. Cedd's College, Cambridge, where he has resided for three centuries. In ''Shada'', Chronotis is a retired [[Time Lord]] and old friend of [[Doctor (Doctor Who)|the Doctor]], living out his remaining centuries in academic seclusion. His unnaturally long life goes un-discussed by his colleagues, owing to the discretion he claims is a hallmark of the old Cambridge colleges. Owing to repeated time travel and advanced age, he is extremely forgetful and absent-minded.<ref>{{cite book |last=Endres |first=Chris |editor-last1=Riffel |editor-first1=Hannes |editor-last2=Mamczak |editor-first2=Sascha |date=2015 |title=Das Science-Fiction Jahr 2015 |publisher=Golkonda |chapter=Shada |isbn=9783944720494}}</ref> He often does not remember which period he has travelled to nor the reason why. He 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 falsely imprisoned on and escaped from the prison planetoid Shada.
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| Despite his innocence, the Time Lords attempted to imprison Salyavin in Shada for fear of him using his unique mind powers to take over Gallifrey. Salyavin escaped by using his mind powers to control the guards escorting him. Salyavin escapes with his TARDIS, disguised as a bookmark. Shortly after escaping Shada, he used his powers to remove all memory of Shada from every Time Lord. In doing so, he is forced to regenerate, and take the name of Chronotis.
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| ==Dirk Gently==
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| 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 VII of Egypt|Cleopatra]] (who he claims wore outrageous earrings and reeked of cat food and death), and believes that he achieved his position after his retirement from "something pretty good". He is known as "Reg", short for Regius Professor Chronotis.
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| His [[Chair (official)|Chair]] of Chronology was created by mad king [[George III of the United Kingdom|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), Reg apparently promptly realising the answer to the three questions and concluding that he could then take time off in reasonable comfort. However, at the conclusion of the novel his time machine was burned out when the phone repair man fixed Reg's telephone so that it would never go wrong again; for some reason the phone always malfunctioned whenever Reg used the time machine due to there being something fundamentally inexplicable about the British telephone system.
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| In 2007, ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' was adapted to radio and Professor Chronotis was portrayed by [[Andrew Sachs]] (who had previously played Skagra in the Big Finish audio/BBC webcast version of Shada).<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/dirkgently/andrew_sachs.shtml BBC Radio 4 website, ''Dirk Gently'' Who's Who page]: [[Andrew Sachs]] Plays Professor Urban 'Reg' Chronotis.</ref>
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| ==References==
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| {{reflist}}
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| ==External links==
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| *{{TardisIndexFile|Salyavin|Professor Chronotis}}
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| {{Subject bar |portal1=Doctor Who |commons=y }}
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| {{Doctor Who characters|selected=Companions}}
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| {{Dirk Gently}}
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| {{DEFAULTSORT:Chronotis, Professor}}
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| [[Category:Television characters introduced in 1980]]
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| [[Category:Fictional academics]]
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| [[Category:Time Lords]]
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| [[Category:Dirk Gently]]
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| [[Category:Douglas Adams characters]]
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| [[Category:Male characters in literature]]
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| [[Category:Male characters in television]]
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