The renegade Word Lord known as Nobody No-One left his universe for N-Space, becoming a thorn in the Seventh Doctor's side. Waiting in his CORDIS for the Doctor, whom he had been contracted to assassinate, to arrive at an Antarctic base in 2045, Nobody caused pandemonium thanks to his linguistic-based abilities before being stopped and imprisoned by the Doctor, Ace, and Hex.
A slip of the tongue from a soldier entering the base enabled Nobody to escape his prison. He took revenge on the Doctor multiple times before regenerating after his CORDIS crashed. He fought the Doctor near the end of the Doctor's seventh regeneration, being trapped in the Hand of All, which was trapped inside the Doctor's mind, which became dormant when the Doctor entered a Gallifreyan sarcophagus eventually buried underneath the Crichton Building, home to the Forge. These barriers were broken in 2026 when the younger Seventh Doctor and Ace, searching for items left behind by the fallen Forge, discovered and opened the sarcophagus. Such was the strength Nobody gained, he decided to off the Doctor once and for all, finally doing so when he was granted the power to kill the Doctor at will. As Nobody forced the Doctor to die, he was overwhelmed with information about the Doctor and subsequently lost inside the maze such created.
Nobody escaped the maze, but was quickly trapped, this time in the Hand of All, after killing Dorothy Noone. The Hand was placed inside the mind of a dying Evelyn Smythe, Nobody not realizing until he discovered his powers did not work. He shared the origins of the Hand of All with the Doctor and Evelyn, implying the Doctor's adventures were fictional, before dying with Evelyn, pacing the steadily shrinking Hand in silence.
Biography
Leaving his home universe, either being exiled or leaving of his own free will, Nobody No-One used his knowledge and power to become a bounty hunter, travelling throughout the multiverse.
Nobody discovered that many people wanted the Seventh Doctor dead. He used his CORDIS to hunt the Doctor through his timeline, seizing on bounties advertised by his enemies. He never caught the Doctor, retreating in defeat to 1945, where he regenerated under mysterious circumstances. Nobody hid at an extraterrestrial research facility called the Forge, where his ship disguised itself as their catchphrase, "For King and Country". (AUDIO: A Death in the Family) A century later, he finally confronted the Doctor in Antarctica, although it is unclear if this was their first meeting. His ship had infiltrated a military bunker, where it hid as a joke. Luckily, the bunker had a security black-out; no phones, no books nor writing material. The Doctor was able to switch the TARDIS' translation circuits to translate everyone's words and thoughts into an obscure alien language none present could understand, imprisoning Nobody and his CORDIS into the only source of literature available: a protocol guide for the bunker. (AUDIO: The Word Lord)
Nobody was able to escape the protocol guide when a soldier entering the base shouted, "Nobody move!" (AUDIO: The Word Lord) He faced the Doctor multiple times in the Doctor's future across space, time, and even universes. Some time later, someone used a lost letter from the English alphabet to snag the CORDIS, making the ship crash, forcing Nobody to regenerate. Clad in a knitted scarf of ridiculous length, Nobody returned with a vengeance. He fought the Doctor yet again, this time from deep in the future, near the end of his seventh incarnation and meeting his demise at Walker General Hospital. He trapped Nobody in the Hand of All and sealed it in his mind, going into hibernation in a Gallifreyan sarcophagus buried beneath the Forge. After the destruction of the facility in 2026, a much younger Seventh Doctor awoke his older self and released Nobody. London remained deserted after being quarantined, but there were still plenty of people to unknowingly empower Nobody.
Nobody was able to meet Hex at the South Bank Duck Pond, when a UNIT corporal told the Doctor and Ace, "I'm afraid nobody's seen your Mr. Schofield." He listened to Hex's complaints about the Doctor, Hex clueless as to who he was, before revealing his identity and taunting Hex about the Doctor and his mother. Blowing up the duck pond for fun, he arrived at the Crichton Building at 4:45. Before shooting the corporal dead, Nobody forced him both to give him the power of life and death over the Doctor and rob the Doctor of his ability to regenerate. A gleeful Nobody quickly used both abilities, being trapped inside a maze of information about the Doctor just as the Doctor perished.
Nobody was freed from the maze when Captain Stillwell said, "Nobody's here." He encountered Dorothy Noone, who he believed was Ace, and chided her for damaging his CORDIS. Noone revealed her nature as a linguistic construct and outlined how she had been brought into existence. Claiming the same power over the Doctor's life and death on account of having the last name Noone, she emphatically declared, "The Doctor lives!", before being fatally injured when the CORDIS's security system was triggered. She tricked Nobody into believing he and his CORDIS would resultantly be uploaded into the Mobius Chip on Stillwell's chest; in fact, they had again been trapped inside the Hand of All, which was transferred from Captain Stillwell's mind to Evelyn's.
At 4:30—4.5 in decimal time—Nobody popped in to visit the Doctor, who was having tea with Evelyn at her house on Pelachan. After being introduced to Evelyn, Nobody taunted the two and mused about killing every living thing, gaining the ability when Evelyn said, "Nobody has that sort of power." He quickly put his plan into action, but to his shock, nothing happened. The Doctor and Evelyn revealed their deception and Evelyn's impending death, noting that Nobody's fate was sealed by the many Pelachans who had said, "No one really dies on Pelachan." Accepting there was no way out, Nobody shared the origins of the Hand of All and implied the Doctor's adventures were fictional. He died in tandem with Evelyn, silently pacing the steadily shrinking Hand. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family)
Psychological profile
Personality
Nobody No-One was an inhuman monster who gained great pleasure from causing people pain and discomfort. He was malicious and cruel, the polar opposite of the Doctor. He enjoyed taunting people. He had mannerisms and speech patterns which were rather similar to the Tenth Doctor's. He laughed hysterically, be it whenever he was blowing up something as mundane as a duck pond or being the first being to commit ultracide, though this was thankfully proven to be an illusion. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family)
Habits and quirks
Crammed with colloquialisms and onomatopoeia, Nobody's speaking style was scatterbrained yet highly casual. (AUDIO: The Word Lord, A Death in the Family) After regenerating, he would highlight the stupidity he perceived in others by calling them monkeys or apes. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family)
Powers and abilities
Oh, the powers this place is granting me, Doctor. Just while we’ve been having our little chat, seventy-three people used the phrase “Nobody tells me what to do,” an anxious general said, “No one has access to the silo room,” and a lorry driver, who’s a bad poet in his spare time, came up with the line, “Nobody stops the Earth spinning, or tells the sun when it can shine.” I’m going to have so much fun with this planet. Do you want a preview? [...] Hey, Doctor, have you heard? Nobody tells the sun when it can shine. And I say: Stop.
Like all Word Lords, Nobody was a linguistic entity who drew strength from the written word. Being from a universe with different laws of physics further amplified his phenomenal cosmic powers. Given the amount of writing in existence, he was usually free to flit around as he wished; only book bans, such as that in place in the Antarctic base, could constrain him. (AUDIO: The Word Lord)
The source of Nobody's abilities was the words "nobody" and "no one". This served as a double-edged sword. Uttering these words in his presence could be a fatal mistake, as he would gain whatever powers were implied by the rest of the sentence, up to and including the means to commit genocide on an unimaginable scale. (AUDIO: The Word Lord, A Death in the Family) On the other hand, nearby linguistic constructs also named Nobody or No-One, or something to that effect, would gain the same powers. The Doctor exploited this by manipulating Ace, Hex, and Henry Noone into creating Dorothy Noone, a linguistic construct based on Ace. In control of the Doctor's fate as much as Nobody, Dorothy Noone emphatically declared, "The Doctor lives!", thereby bringing him back to life. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family)
Just like Time Lords, Nobody could regenerate when fatally injured, doing so at least once after his CORDIS crashed. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family) His CORDIS's chameleon meme disguised the ship as a word or phrase, such as "For King and Country", the Forge's motto. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family) When it traveled, the CORDIS left behind repeated instances of the number 45. (AUDIO: The Word Lord, A Death in the Family)
Appearance
After regenerating, Nobody began wearing a ridiculously long scarf in tribute to the Fourth Doctor. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family)
Behind the scenes
- Nobody No-One is conceptually linked to various concepts from creator Steven Hall's 2007 novel The Raw Shark Texts, namely the "conceptual shark" and the character Mr. Nobody.