Some infoboxes of world leaders, two former and one current.
Casting (previously established)
Tamlyn Tomita as Renata Barrica
Alexander Siddig as Manib bin Hessani
Armin Mueller-Stahl as Efraim "Eli" Zahavy
Barrica was established as being a former Philippines senator and daughter of the president whose murder in an attempted coup resulted in US troops being sent to the Philippines (explaining why the show mentions US troops having been sent to the Philippines just before Bartlet was inaugurated) and is a doctor of some sort, but not much else. I decided that she would be a medical doctor whose career was upended by the murder of her parents and after democracy was restored, felt like she needed to go into politics. I picked her as being a member of the Liberal Party because they're established (so it makes sense she could be the second generation of her family to be one of its elected officials) and because the party seems to fit her described ideals.
Her deputies and predecessors as committee chair in the Philippine Senate are, of course, new. Her post-nominal letters show that she is a member of the Philippine Legion of Honor and Order of Sikatuna, respectively.
Hessani previously had his infobox done years ago, so mostly this is just an update. The biggest change is obviously that he's no longer in power.
I decided to show all of his prime ministers rather than have them behind a collapsible list since there's only three of them and they're all important. (Ahmed is of course, the de facto head of state right now, Mikkuri attempted a coup in 2015 that was foiled and Farra had the misfortune to be formally running the government when the country collapsed in 2016)
Besides the show, the only backstory added for Zahavy was that his real name was Efraim and that he was Director of Mossad under the last Likud prime minister (Yahbin) before he took over the party during a period in the opposition.
My backstory is that he was born in what was at the time Germany in 1936 (a nod to the fact that his actor is German) and immigrated with his family before the Second World War. After college, he performed his military duty with the IDF and saw action as a paratrooper during the Suez Crisis. After five years, he joined the Mossad and rose up the ranks until he was appointed to lead Mossad in the late 1990s. He was recruited to join Likud and he took over the party after Yahbin fell from power.
Lazer (Zahavy's predecessor at PM during his first go-round) being president when Zahavy returns to power is a nod to OTL Prime Minister Shimon Peres serving a term as president when Netanyahu came back. Since the Israeli presidency is mostly ceremonial, I thought no one would mind that I'm establishing the current one as Mordechai Ovitz, a former Likud cabinet minister, whose term is set to expire in 2021 (presidents serve one seven-year term with no reelection).
Was there an equivalent to the NSA mass surveillance program in the West Wing universe? That could be something interesting to tackle in the Seaborn White House.
Was there an equivalent to the NSA mass surveillance program in the West Wing universe? That could be something interesting to tackle in the Seaborn White House.
Terrorism was never as big an issue in this timeline IIRC. Of course that could make any surveillance program more polarizing given it doesn’t seem as necessary
Terrorism was never as big an issue in this timeline IIRC. Of course that could make any surveillance program more polarizing given it doesn’t seem as necessary
No it didn't and even if it did Isaac and Ishmael is non-canon in the West Wing. Isaac and Ishmael was just made to address the attack in recent weeks.
Businesswoman Shannon Frost's nomination to the position of Secretary of Commerce has been sent to the full Senate after her nomination passed the Senate Commerce, Science and Technology (CST) Committee. Frost, who earned the ire of committee leaders for her repeated delays in submitting her financial disclosure paperwork, managed to convince several Republicans on the committee to forward her nomination to the whole Senate, with five Republicans joining all 12 Democrats to give her 17 votes for to 9 votes against. "I'm glad that the president sent us a nominee who has a history of creating jobs and who understands the importance of the market," Senator Carlin Cassidy (R-PA), one of the Republicans who voted to support her told NBS. "I believe her explanation for the delay [in submitting a complete financial disclosure form] was credible and did not find anything that in my opinion would disqualify her from serving as Secretary of Commerce."
Committee Chair Jeff Heston (R-UT) remained unconvinced by Frost and her testimony. "The next Secretary of Commerce will have the awesome responsibility of overseeing the census next year...I don't feel comfortable entrusting that responsibility to someone who delayed this committee repeatedly with delays in submitting her financial disclosure information."
The beginning of debate on Frost's nomination for the whole Senate has been placed on the Senate calendar for March 25. With Republicans having a very slim majority in the Senate and with five Republicans having broken ranks to vote to approve of her nomination, congressional insiders have reported that the Republican leadership are reconsidering their plans for dealing with her nomination before the Senate as a whole.
OOC: Bit of a fun side project that I've completed with Mark's approval and help. I noticed that quite a few former Doctors from Doctor Who had appeared during this thread's lifetime, so I figured it was time to bring in the ones that hadn't been cast. And might as well throw in the ones we'd already encountered in this thread (or its predecessor) for completeness' sake.
Since there are 14 entries in this list (the thirteen people who were series leads plus Sir John Hurt), I've split them up into three groups in each incarnation's chronological order (this means Hurt's Doctor is placed ninth in the list instead of twelfth, ahead of only the two most recent Doctors).
Enjoy!
IC: Percy Burns was a decorated British major general who earned the Victoria's Cross in the Second World War for his bravery during the Second Battle of El Alamein. Burns would accumulate several more honors before the war's end and would end his military career as head of the Royal Armoured Corps in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He turned down a seat in the House of Lords, instead accepting a sinecure as Resident Governor of the Tower of London from 1963 until his retirement in 1968. He died in 1975.
William Smith was a Labour cabinet minister in both the Wilson and Callaghan governments of the 1960s and 1970s. After seeing action as a Royal Navy officer in the Second World War, Smith finished the schooling that had been interrupted by the war and became active in Labour politics. He won a by-election to the seat of Hayes and Harlington and began his rise in the party ranks. Noted for his rather rumbled presentation, Smith would nonetheless serve Labour's postwar leaders well in numerous portfolios, at times complaining that he was "getting quite dizzy" from being shuffled around wherever needed. A workaholic, Smith ran himself ragged and was holding a surgery in his constituency's Harlington office when he was felled by a massive heart attack at age 67.
Sir Henry Mershan was soldier, diplomat and politician whose career spanned the Cold War. In the Second World War, he joined the Special Boat Section (SBS), now called the Special Boat Service, and distinguished himself on raids in the Greek theater. After the war, he remained with the SBS as it was adopted by the Royal Navy and stocked with Royal Marines, winning the Military Cross for his actions in Cyprus. After his retirement in 1960, he became active in Conservative politics and was persuaded to stand for Parliament in the 1964 election. He easily won the seat of Devizes, although he unhappily spent his parliamentary career in the backbenches. Quickly growing bored, he quickly agreed to the offer extended by Prime Minister Harold Wilson to become Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Mershan (knighted as Sir Henry Mershan in 1973) enjoyed his time with NATO but agreed to step down in summer 1974 at Wilson's (who had just returned to power) request. In his retirement, he served as an adviser to the Thatcher and Reed governments and died in 1996 while meeting unnamed colleagues for a conference.
Timothy Shannon, Baron Shannon of Hastings is one of the more eccentric and oldest British politicians of 2019. After completing his national service in the Royal Fusiliers, Shannon spent the 1960s as a local councilor before managing to become the Conservative candidate for the safe seat of Hastings in the 1970 general election. As expected, he won and began a parliamentary career that has continued with only one interruption for the past half-century. His penchant for non sequiturs and personal eccentricities kept him out of the frontline of the cabinet until well into Margaret Thatcher's term as prime minister, but once he had been "accepted", Shannon proved to be a valuable asset and competent, if unpredictable, minister. For a decade (1986 to 1996) a cycle repeated where Shannon would be promoted to a frontbench post, then demoted or sacked for some impropriety (such as repeated tardiness to Cabinet meetings or bucking from the party line during Commons debates) only to be reappointed to another post with the next reshuffle. But this came to an end when the 1996 Labour landslide ended nearly two decades of uninterrupted Conservative rule and tossed Shannon from his seat.
Out of office, Shannon registered his disenchantment with the Maureen Graty-led Conservatives by joining the Liberal Democrats a year after being a Conservative minister. Prime Minister Ricky Meyer appointed Shannon to the Lords, both as a reward for his service as a cabinet minister and also to needle his Conservative rivals. Now Lord Shannon of Hastings, he wasted little time and became leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords from 1999 to 2004 before being persuaded to retire from this post. After two months of quiet, the septuagenarian Lord Shannon then announced he had resigned the Liberal Democrat whip to sit as a crossbencher. Now age 85, Lord Shannon still regularly attends sessions of the Lords.
Henry Reed is the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, having served from 1993 to 1996. Brought up by his father, a veteran of the Second World War, Reed rose rapidly from being a bank clerk at age 16 to local councilor at 23. In 1982, he was elected to the seat of Putney and began his quick rise through the ranks of Margaret Thatcher's government. In 1985 he was a parliamentary private secretary and five years later, he became Foreign Secretary after Thatcher defeated a leadership challenge in November 1990. Being promoted to Home Secretary after the 1991 election, Reed became the Iron Lady's heir apparent and succeeded her as both Conservative leader and prime minister when Thatcher resigned after 14 years in power in 1993. Reed's tenure as prime minister was rocky, with Euroskeptic members breaking off to form the National Democratic Party and a decade-and-a-half of scandals saddled the Conservatives with a losing hand and he led the party to a humiliating defeat in 1996. As of 2019, he is the most recent prime minister who did not win at least one general election, as well as the earliest-serving living prime minister. His subsequent refusal after serving as prime minister to accept either a life peerage or a knighthood has also largely been kept up by his successors, with only Andrew Carter accepting one of the two (in his case, a knighthood) after his term as prime minister.
After his time as prime minister, Reed resigned as Conservative leader and was succeeded by Maureen Graty. He spent the remainder of the 1996-2000 parliament on the backbenches before retiring. For the next decade, he largely dedicated himself to writing before accepting the Conservative nomination for the post of Mayor of London in 2009. Reed won the subsequent 2010 election, becoming the first Conservative to hold that office. His time as mayor has been regarded as much better than his time as prime minister and he was easily reelected in 2014. He declined to run for a third term in 2018 and retired, handing over power to fellow Conservative Nigel Jay.
Casting
William Hartnell as Percy Burns
Patrick Troughton as William Smith
Jon Perwee as Sir Henry Mershan
Tom Baker as Timothy Shannon, Lord Shannon of Hastings
Peter Davison as Henry Reed (previously established)
Burns is established as being five years older than Hartnell was (Burns was born in 1908, Hartnell in 1903) since Hartnell looked older than he really was when he portrayed the Doctor. His military service as a general in the Royal Armoured Corps is a reference to Hartnell's own service (unlike Burns, who won the highest award for valor, Hartnell had a nervous breakdown and was discharged from the service before the war's end).
Burns' refusal to join the Lords is a nod to his incarnation's flight from his homeworld of Gallifrey to wander the universe, and his term's start coincides with the original series' first broadcast (1963).
Like Hartnell, Troughton's character shares his actor's military experience, although unlike Hartnell, Smith's military record is identical to Troughton's.
Pertwee's character has Huguenot ancestry, much like his actor, hence the unusual surname. Mershon's military career is also much longer than Pertwee's and is much more conventional; IRL Pertwee was a member of the Naval Intelligence Division alongside James Bond author Ian Fleming, details of which were published well after his death. Mershon's tenure to NATO is meant as a wink to his Doctor's partnership with U.N.I.T and also the beginning and end dates are the same as the original air dates of his first and last episodes as the series lead.
Tom Baker is the most recent RL Doctor to have military experience, but unlike Shannon, he was an enlisted man in the Royal Army Medical Corps instead of the Fusiliers. His party switching, odd nature and three marriages are all a hat-tip to his portrayal of the Doctor, which IMO is one of, if not the most, alien (helped by his weird goofy smile and odd ensemble) of all the incarnations seen on-screen.
Most of Reed's biography was established here. The only real update is his tenure as Mayor of London. Carter was established as having been knighted after leaving Parliament here.
IC: Sir Reginald Styles was a longtime Labour MP and diplomat who tragically was killed during the 2010 Mexico City earthquake. Born in London, Styles was raised in Newcastle. After completing his two years of national service in the British Army, he worked as a shipbuilder and quickly rose through the ranks of his trade union to become a local steward. Despite his lack of formal education, Styles impressed Labour officials and he was selected as their nominee for a 1972 by-election to a safe seat in Newcastle. After the beginning of the Thatcher government, Styles slowly moved up the ranks into the Shadow Cabinet of first Neil Kinnock and then Ricky Meyer. His strong work ethic, solid working-class background and strong advocacy for increased participation in the European Union led him to becoming the Foreign Secretary under Meyer after the 1996 election that brought Labour back into power for the first time since 1979.
Styles' time as Foreign Secretary was eventful. He oversaw the UK's involvement in the Balkans, NATO support for American intervention in the Philippines, helped to stop the 1999 Kargil War between India and Pakistan, and was involved in the negotiations that brought about the Good Friday Agreement that ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland. But his work took a toll on his health and he shocked the country by announcing he would not stand for re-election in 2000, depriving Labour of a strong asset. Made a knight in the New Year's Honours in 2001, Styles turned down most offers of ambassadorships (to "dreadfully boring and cold" nations as he reportedly remarked) until he accepted the post of Ambassador to Mexico in 2002. Although his ally Meyer lost power in 2004, Styles' effectiveness at engaging with Mexican authorities on a personal and political level led to Prime Minister Maureen Graty to retain him despite their political differences. Styles would continue serving as ambassador until 30 September 2010 when the British embassy in Mexico City he was working in was destroyed by a massive earthquake.
Bill McNair, Baron McNair of Cowal is the former First Minister of Scotland and current member of the House of Lords. Born in Dunoon in Argylle and Bute, McNair's father was killed in the Normandy landings when McNair was ten months old. He grew up in Dunoon and after attending the University of Glasgow, embarked on a career as an insurance broker. Relatively apolitical as a young man, he gradually became more and more involved in the Labour Party as the Thatcher years moved on. He was elected for the seat of Monklands West in 1987 and spent the first nine years of his political career as an opposition backbencher. After the 1996 landslide that swept Ricky Meyer's Labour government into power, McNair was named Minister of State for Scotland, but less than a year later, gave that position up for a seat in the new Scottish Parliament, while still holding his seat in Westminster. McNair would join Duncan Napier's cabinet as the first Scottish Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning and when Napier was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1999, was elected to succeed him as both leader of the Scottish Labour Party and First Minister.
McNair's tenure as First Minister marked the high point of Scottish Labour, and they were able to win enough seats to govern as a minority in 2001 with little fear of a divided opposition bringing down the government. But the five year tenure saw a gradual erosion of support from Labour to the Scottish National Party (SNP) and that party would edge out Labour to win the most seats in the 2006 election. McNair agreed to a coalition that backed SNP leader Rob Kelly to succeed him as First Minister and then resigned as leader of Scottish Labour. He spent the next four years in the government backbenches before being named to the House of Lords by Prime Minister John Green as the Baron McNair of Cowal. Lord McNair is regarded as Labour's point man on Scottish affairs in the Lords, although he has come under public scrutiny for his publicly-funded travel engagements to meetings with New Zealand parliamentarians.
Leslie Maddox is currently the Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. Maddox attended the University of London, where he graduated with a degree in international relations. Intending to take a career as a diplomat, he soon became involved in activism in his home city of Liverpool and never really pursued further studies. Elected as a city councilor in 1996, Maddox was soon shortlisted for a safe seat in Parliament, although he refused all offers until his own MP, Rob Nelson, announced his retirement ahead of the 2011 election. Maddox then won the nomination for his seat of Liverpool West Derby uncontested and, like every Labour candidate for that seat since 1959, was elected by a comfortable margin. He spent the first three years of his career on the opposition backbenches before being named to the first Shadow Cabinet selected by Andrea Benn after she was elected Labour leader as Shadow Secretary of State for Administrative Affairs. After two years, he was promoted to Shadow Secretary of State for International Development in the 2016 reshuffle. He was reelected to a third term in Parliament with a majority of over 50 percent, one of the top five best finishes for Labour in 2018.
Robert Miner was a British/American politician who served for nearly four decades in the United States Senate. Born in 1936 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Miner and his family moved to Canada shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, and in 1941 moved to the United States, settling in Arkansas. As a result, Miner's natural accent was a unique mix of Received Pronunciation and Southern American English, although for the first decade of his political career, he used a southern accent in public appearances before gradually reverting to his natural one. Miner earned both his undergraduate and law degree in his home state of Arkansas, although he did not end up practicing law for very long before getting involved in politics. He ran for and won a seat in the Arkansas state senate in 1964 as a Democrat (as almost all politicians in the South were at the time). When longtime senator John L. McClellan came up for reelection in 1966, Miner took him on in what many judged to be a suicidal run against a popular incumbent. But a combination of a compelling message tying his youth to the change going through the South with the end of Jim Crow and McClellan getting caught up in a scandal regarding a previous law partner's disappearance led to Miner to eek out a victory in the party primary, shocking the political world. Miner would then win to become one of the youngest senators in history, being sworn in while he was still 30 years old.
Miner, like many white southern Democrats of his time, drifted to the Republicans and formally switched parties in 1968, with his first presidential endorsement as an elected official being for Richard Nixon. It was assumed that he had switched to the Republicans too quickly for many Arkansans, who still voted Democratic on down-ballot races and going into 1972, Miner was predicted to be a one-term senator. But President Nixon's landslide victory in the 1972 election had large coattails in Arkansas, and Miner was reelected. He would win six more elections (1978, 1984, 1990, 1996, 2002 and 2008), facing a serious challenge in only one of them (2002 when he defeated former governor Jack Stanton). When the Republicans took the Senate for the first time in a quarter-century in 1981, Miner became chair of the Senate Rules Committee, a post he held until his party lost the majority following the 1988 midterms. In 1990, he was elected to lead his party in the Senate, serving as Senate Minority Leader during Owen Lassiter's first term before stepping aside at Lassiter's urging for Earl Dern when corruption allegations (none of which were proven) began swirling around him. When the Republicans took the Senate majority with the 1998 election, Miner became head of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and used it to direct millions upon millions of dollars to Arkansas during the sixteen years when he led it.
With Joseph Furman's death in 2009, Miner became president pro tempore of the Senate, and acted as President of the Senate during the brief vice presidential vacancy following Eric Baker's resignation. Miner ran for a ninth term in 2014 at age 78, but his advanced age and a quality challenger in Representative Hubert "Arkansas" Smith made it a serious contest. The long-time senator was hurt by episodes where he appeared disoriented, including referring to then-president Glen Allen Walken as "President Lassiter" in a speech. In the end, Miner lost his bid for re-election, becoming the longest-serving senator to lose a bid for re-election with 48 years of service (the second-most in history behind Furman). After leaving office, Miner spent only a few years in retirement before passing away in his North Little Rock home in 2017 at age 81.
Casting
Colin Baker as Sir Reginald Styles (previously established)
Sylvester McCoy as Bill McNair, Lord McNair of Cowal (new casting)
Paul McGann as Leslie Maddox (new casting)
John Hurt as Robert Miner (previously established)
Most of Styles' biography was previously established. The newest bits I'm adding are his military service (unlike his actor, Styles was old enough to have been required to undertake it) and background as a trade unionist.
McNair was established in 2016, but was not cast as anyone. McCoy seemed perfect for the role and Mark okay'd it. The broad strokes of McNair's career were established back then, but I'm adding his pre-Holyrood career, giving him a bit of ministerial experience before he succeeds Napier as first minister, and establishing him as having been elevated to the peerage after his retirement from frontline politics.
Some of the details about McNair's personal life are shared with his actor. His middle name of Percy is Sylvester McCoy's real first name ("Sylvester McCoy" is a stage name, his birth name is Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith). Similarly, McCoy's RL father was killed in World War II, but before McCoy was born instead of in D-Day when both McCoy and McNair would have been ten months old. His background as an insurance broker is also shared by McCoy, who did that (and worked in theater box office) before becoming a performer. The bit about McNair's trips to New Zealand is a nod to the fact that McCoy plays Radagast in The Hobbit series, which of course is shot in New Zealand.
Like McCoy/McNair, Maddox was established earlier but not casted and Mark had McGann be the person who portrays him. Most of Maddox's biography here is my own creation, including his career as a city councilor and having been a planned diplomat but never getting off the ground (kind of similar to how his debut in the 1996 TV movie was a "back-door" pilot for a revival of the Doctor Who series that wasn't picked up and so he only has two canonical appearances as the Doctor instead of a whole season).
Hurt's casting as Miner actually predates his time as the War Doctor. Most of his biography was already established--the most I've added besides his death (which given the character's age, exit from politics and his actor's death, shouldn't be a problem for the thread's future) was his previous committee leadership during the 1980s when the Republicans held the Senate majority.
OOC: And the final installment, this time of all the series leads in NuWho:
IC: Jack Coll is the current Chairman of the Labour Party and member of the Shadow Cabinet. After attending the University of Manchester, Coll spent ten years bouncing around in different white collar occupations, briefly serving as a tutor, news editor and political organizer for Labour during the 1991 general election, before securing the Labour nomination for the seat of Chorley in 1996 and getting elected easily. Spending the Meyer years in the backbenches, Coll served as Minister of State for Europe and the Americas during John Green's term as prime minister, briefly acting as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in 2009 when Secretary Rachel Lilburn was recuperating from injuries sustained in a terrorist attack. Following Labour's defeat in 2011, Coll moved into the frontbenches, becoming Shadow Secretary of State for Defence from 2011 to 2013, briefly serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2013 before becoming Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs just before the 2013 general election. He would serve at this post until 2017, where he would be moved to his current posts as party chairman and National Campaign Coordinator by Andrea Benn.
Patrick Brazil is the current Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. During both his undergraduate and law school career, Brazil was strongly involved with Labour politics, becoming president of his university's chapter of Young Labour. After graduation, he had a brief career as a solicitor before being selected for safe seat of Inverclyde ahead of the 2004 election. Easily winning the seat, Brazil didn't make many waves during the next decade, but slowly rose as Labour returned to and then fell out of government. After the 2013 Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, Brazil finally made it to the frontbench, serving his first stint as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2013 before being promoted to Shadow Secretary of State for Pensions and Work later that year. When Andrea Benn became Labour's leader in 2014, she moved him back to the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury. His polish and skillful performances at Question Time led to his promotion during the 2016 reshuffle to be Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor. The next reshuffle in 2017 saw his star rise even higher as he was promoted to Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. He has emerged as Labour's chief spokesman in opposition to the Samuels government's foreign policy, especially critical of the continued British presence in Qumar and the prime minister's plan to hold a second referendum on Britain's membership in the European Union.
Matt Smith is a retired football midfielder and the current caretaker manager for Leicester City. Smith began his youth career playing for Northampton Town in the Under 11s and 12s, before playing with both Nottingham Forest and then Leicester City, where he would win two FA Youth Cups. He would sign a professional contract with Leicester in 2000 and made his professional debut in May of that year. He would have productive loan spells at Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion before joining Reading in January 2003. He would help Reading gain promotion to the Premier League in the 2005-06 season and then moved to Chelsea in 2006 for a £10 transfer fee. He didn't regularly appear for Chelsea and was moved to Blackburn Rovers, the team he supported as a child, in January 2009 and was made captain. He was made FWA Football of the Year in 2011-12 despite his club being relegated. Afterwords, he was signed by Tottenham Hotspur before moving back to Leicester City in 2014. His return was marred by a serious back injury he suffered in February 2015. Continuing problems with his back led him to appear in only five games during his club's miraculous Premier League title season of 2015-16 and he retired at the end of the 2016-17 Premier League season.
Internationally, Smith competed for England on every level from under-16 to the senior team, earning 20 caps for the senior team from his 2005 debut until his final international match in 2013. He was named man of the match for his role in a 1-0 victory over 2010 World Cup champion Spain on 12 November 2011 and was a starter on England's squad during the 2012 EUFA European Championship.
Following his retirement, Smith served as Leicester's youth coach (memorably stating that he "coaches now" and that "coaching is cool") before being promoted to coaching the first team in the summer of 2017. On 26 February 2019, he was named caretaker manager of Leicester City for the remainder of the 2018-19 Premier League season, replacing Claude Puel.
Malcolm Cutter was a British politician who was briefly leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition. Born and raised in St Helens, Merseyside, Cutter spent his initial years as a teacher before returning to school and earning a law degree from the University of Glasgow. His drive and commitment impressed law school colleagues and professors, who recommended him to political headhunters. Initially approached by a representative of the Conservatives, Cutter politely declined the offer of standing as their candidate before accepting Labour's offer to stand for that same seat, St Helens North, in 1996. He easily won and within a few years, was serving as a junior minister in Ricky Meyer's government. After the election of Maureen Graty in 2004, he declined offers of a top Shadow Cabinet position and reportedly was considering leaving politics before early elections were called in 2007. Labour won those elections and John Green persuaded Cutter to become Secretary of State for Defence. Cutter would serve in that capacity for two years from 2007 to 2009 before being promoted to Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. As Foreign Secretary, Cutter helped end the Cretan War between Greece and Bulgaria on one hand and Turkey on the other, and aided American Secretary of State Arnold Vinick in attempting to craft a solution to the crisis in Gaza.
When Labour was defeated in the 2011 election, Cutter stood for and won the race to succeed Green as Labour leader and Leader of the Opposition. With plans to reconcile the feuding wings of his party, Cutter had less than three months as leader before he collapsed in his Westminster office after suffering a massive heart attack. His death at age 53 shocked the British political scene and has left some wondering if he could have defeated Andrew Carter in 2013 or Richard Samuels in 2018 where his successors (Ed Miller and Andrea Benn) both failed.
Victoria Thorpe is a British politician who is currently the Shadow Minister for Public and Mental Health. A native of Scunthorpe, Victoria Lattimore, who took the name Thorpe after marrying her college boyfriend Joseph, was involved in several nonprofit organizations. After longtime Labour MP Ned Mott decided to retire, Thorpe won the backing of the party for his seat of Leeds East in the 2013 election. Winning easily, Thorpe impressed new Labour leader Andrea Benn and was eventually made the first Shadow Minister for Public and Mental Health when Benn reshuffled the Shadow Cabinet in 2016. Thorpe handily won reelection in 2018 and has garnered a reputation for her energetic and upbeat personality and has an unusually large social media following given her status as a junior Shadow Cabinet official.
Casting
Christopher Eccleston as Jack Coll (previously established)
David Tennant as Patrick Brazil (previously established)
Matt Smith as himself
Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Cutter (previously established)
Jodie Whittaker as Victoria Thorpe (new casting)
Coll and Brazil were both established and cast well before this, so most of the newest information is personal background and when they first were elected to Parliament.
Yes, Matt Smith is just himself but with his initial career path of being a football/soccer player never derailed by injury until his thirties instead of as a young man. Mark came up with his career stats and biography, basing his career on that of two real-life players (Steve Sidwell and Scott Parker), who are roughly the same age as Smith.
Like Hurt, Capaldi was established as a character before he was ever cast as the Doctor. Most of his biography was established beforehand by his time as Labour leader and then untimely death. The most important nugget I'm adding is his initial recruitment by the Tories, an allusion to the fact that before became the Twelfth Doctor, Capaldi turned down a chance to audition for the role of the Eighth Doctor.
Thorpe was previously established, but not casted. Mark established her as being portrayed by Whittaker. I created most of Thorpe's background, such as that Thorpe is her married name and that she's a relative newcomer to Parliament. The bit about an outsize social media following is a nod to the fact that she's the incumbent Doctor and thus has a higher media presence than all of the other Doctors.
OOC: And the final installment, this time of all the series leads in NuWho:
IC: Jack Coll is the current Chairman of the Labour Party and member of the Shadow Cabinet. After attending the University of Manchester, Coll spent ten years bouncing around in different white collar occupations, briefly serving as a tutor, news editor and political organizer for Labour during the 1991 general election, before securing the Labour nomination for the seat of Chorley in 1996 and getting elected easily. Spending the Meyer years in the backbenches, Coll served as Minister of State for Europe and the Americas during John Green's term as prime minister, briefly acting as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in 2009 when Secretary Rachel Lilburn was recuperating from injuries sustained in a terrorist attack. Following Labour's defeat in 2011, Coll moved into the frontbenches, becoming Shadow Secretary of State for Defence from 2011 to 2013, briefly serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2013 before becoming Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs just before the 2013 general election. He would serve at this post until 2017, where he would be moved to his current posts as party chairman and National Campaign Coordinator by Andrea Benn.
Patrick Brazil is the current Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. During both his undergraduate and law school career, Brazil was strongly involved with Labour politics, becoming president of his university's chapter of Young Labour. After graduation, he had a brief career as a solicitor before being selected for safe seat of Inverclyde ahead of the 2004 election. Easily winning the seat, Brazil didn't make many waves during the next decade, but slowly rose as Labour returned to and then fell out of government. After the 2013 Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, Brazil finally made it to the frontbench, serving his first stint as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2013 before being promoted to Shadow Secretary of State for Pensions and Work later that year. When Andrea Benn became Labour's leader in 2014, she moved him back to the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury. His polish and skillful performances at Question Time led to his promotion during the 2016 reshuffle to be Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor. The next reshuffle in 2017 saw his star rise even higher as he was promoted to Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. He has emerged as Labour's chief spokesman in opposition to the Samuels government's foreign policy, especially critical of the continued British presence in Qumar and the prime minister's plan to hold a second referendum on Britain's membership in the European Union.
Matt Smith is a retired football midfielder and the current caretaker manager for Leicester City. Smith began his youth career playing for Northampton Town in the Under 11s and 12s, before playing with both Nottingham Forest and then Leicester City, where he would win two FA Youth Cups. He would sign a professional contract with Leicester in 2000 and made his professional debut in May of that year. He would have productive loan spells at Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion before joining Reading in January 2003. He would help Reading gain promotion to the Premier League in the 2005-06 season and then moved to Chelsea in 2006 for a £10 transfer fee. He didn't regularly appear for Chelsea and was moved to Blackburn Rovers, the team he supported as a child, in January 2009 and was made captain. He was made FWA Football of the Year in 2011-12 despite his club being relegated. Afterwords, he was signed by Tottenham Hotspur before moving back to Leicester City in 2014. His return was marred by a serious back injury he suffered in February 2015. Continuing problems with his back led him to appear in only five games during his club's miraculous Premier League title season of 2015-16 and he retired at the end of the 2016-17 Premier League season.
Internationally, Smith competed for England on every level from under-16 to the senior team, earning 20 caps for the senior team from his 2005 debut until his final international match in 2013. He was named man of the match for his role in a 1-0 victory over 2010 World Cup champion Spain on 12 November 2011 and was a starter on England's squad during the 2012 EUFA European Championship.
Following his retirement, Smith served as Leicester's youth coach (memorably stating that he "coaches now" and that "coaching is cool") before being promoted to coaching the first team in the summer of 2017. On 26 February 2019, he was named caretaker manager of Leicester City for the remainder of the 2018-19 Premier League season, replacing Claude Puel.
Malcolm Cutter was a British politician who was briefly leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition. Born and raised in St Helens, Merseyside, Cutter spent his initial years as a teacher before returning to school and earning a law degree from the University of Glasgow. His drive and commitment impressed law school colleagues and professors, who recommended him to political headhunters. Initially approached by a representative of the Conservatives, Cutter politely declined the offer of standing as their candidate before accepting Labour's offer to stand for that same seat, St Helens North, in 1996. He easily won and within a few years, was serving as a junior minister in Ricky Meyer's government. After the election of Maureen Graty in 2004, he declined offers of a top Shadow Cabinet position and reportedly was considering leaving politics before early elections were called in 2007. Labour won those elections and John Green persuaded Cutter to become Secretary of State for Defence. Cutter would serve in that capacity for two years from 2007 to 2009 before being promoted to Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. As Foreign Secretary, Cutter helped end the Cretan War between Greece and Bulgaria on one hand and Turkey on the other, and aided American Secretary of State Arnold Vinick in attempting to craft a solution to the crisis in Gaza.
When Labour was defeated in the 2011 election, Cutter stood for and won the race to succeed Green as Labour leader and Leader of the Opposition. With plans to reconcile the feuding wings of his party, Cutter had less than three months as leader before he collapsed in his Westminster office after suffering a massive heart attack. His death at age 53 shocked the British political scene and has left some wondering if he could have defeated Andrew Carter in 2013 or Richard Samuels in 2018 where his successors (Ed Miller and Andrea Benn) both failed.
Victoria Thorpe is a British politician who is currently the Shadow Minister for Public and Mental Health. A native of Scunthorpe, Victoria Lattimore, who took the name Thorpe after marrying her college boyfriend Joseph, was involved in several nonprofit organizations. After longtime Labour MP Ned Mott decided to retire, Thorpe won the backing of the party for his seat of Leeds East in the 2013 election. Winning easily, Thorpe impressed new Labour leader Andrea Benn and was eventually made the first Shadow Minister for Public and Mental Health when Benn reshuffled the Shadow Cabinet in 2016. Thorpe handily won reelection in 2018 and has garnered a reputation for her energetic and upbeat personality and has an unusually large social media following given her status as a junior Shadow Cabinet official.
Casting
Christopher Eccleston as Jack Coll (previously established)
David Tennant as Patrick Brazil (previously established)
Matt Smith as himself
Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Cutter (previously established)
Jodie Whittaker as Victoria Thorpe (new casting)
Coll and Brazil were both established and cast well before this, so most of the newest information is personal background and when they first were elected to Parliament.
Yes, Matt Smith is just himself but with his initial career path of being a football/soccer player never derailed by injury until his thirties instead of as a young man. Mark came up with his career stats and biography, basing his career on that of two real-life players (Steve Sidwell and Scott Parker), who are roughly the same age as Smith.
Like Hurt, Capaldi was established as a character before he was ever cast as the Doctor. Most of his biography was established beforehand by his time as Labour leader and then untimely death. The most important nugget I'm adding is his initial recruitment by the Tories, an allusion to the fact that before became the Twelfth Doctor, Capaldi turned down a chance to audition for the role of the Eighth Doctor.
Thorpe was previously established, but not casted. Mark established her as being portrayed by Whittaker. I created most of Thorpe's background, such as that Thorpe is her married name and that she's a relative newcomer to Parliament. The bit about an outsize social media following is a nod to the fact that she's the incumbent Doctor and thus has a higher media presence than all of the other Doctors.
Loved how you included all the actors and actress who have played the Doctor in OTL as politicians. Really fun. Speaking of Doctor Who is it on TV in TTL? I really like your timeline and how detailed you go into it. Can you please share what Australia has been doing? I know you recently did a election for Australia. Thank you
Well, Australia recently hosted new Secretary of State August Adair on the first leg of his world tour. Other than that and getting used to a new PM, not a whole lot of news from the Great Down Under.
Thank you, but this isn't my TL. It's a collaborative effort with Marky Bunny as the head writer.
Yes it is. Marky is currently working on who played/plays the series leads ITTL.
Well, Australia recently hosted new Secretary of State August Adair on the first leg of his world tour. Other than that and getting used to a new PM, not a whole lot of news from the Great Down Under.[/QUOTE]
Loved how you included all the actors and actress who have played the Doctor in OTL as politicians. Really fun. Speaking of Doctor Who is it on TV in TTL?
Adair meets with Indian, Pakistani leaders as border skirmishes continue
Secretary of State August Adair has sat down with the leaders of both India and Pakistan as their countries' armies continue to skirmish in the disputed territory of Kashmir in attempts to end the conflict. The two nuclear powers began skirmishing in late February after the Indian Air Force bombed what they claimed was a "terrorist training camp" in rural Pakistan in retaliation for a terrorist attack that killed two dozen police officers in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir. On Monday, Adair met with Indian Prime Minister Bijan Advani in New Delhi, while today he met with Pakistani President Wasim Mohammad in Islamabad. In both meetings, Adair reportedly has urged restraint, suggesting American military intelligence on rogue groups operating in the region be given to both sides and that steps towards deescalation be taken.
President Sam Seaborn says he has "full confidence" in Adair's skills as a diplomat and that he is continuing to monitor the situation from Washington. The Kashmir region has been disputed between India and Pakistan since the 1947 partition of the subcontinent following the end of British rule. A "line of control" has denoted the parts administered by the two nations, with another portion being administered by China (having been ceded in a 1963 treaty with Pakistan that India does not recognize).
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Popes meet in Rome
Pope Clement XV and Pope Emeritus Victor IV met for the first time since Clement's election earlier today at Victor's new residence in Rome. The new pontiff, who was elected on 6 March, traveled to meet his predecessor at the Franciscan monastery of Sant’Isidoro a Capo le Case where Victor IV is residing. The two men reportedly prayed together and briefly discussed both Vatican and church affairs and the pope emeritus' accommodations before Clement's departure.
No photographs of the two men together were taken, reportedly owing to Victor IV feeling unwell and not wishing to give the impression that he was distressed by his successor's presence. The 93 year-old former Bishop of Rome praised the College of Cardinals for "wisely choosing a new shepherd for the mother Church" and did not answer questions when asked by reporters. This was the first meeting of two popes since Victor's final meeting with pope emeritus Celestine VI prior to the latter's death in 2013.
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First Couple adopt "First Dog"
President Sam Seaborn and First Lady Lauren Parker-Seaborn have added a six-month old Jack Russell terrier puppy named Marty to their family, with the couple introducing the new puppy on the White House lawn earlier today. "I know I feel a bit better having a new guard dog around to help the Secret Service," President Seaborn joked as the curious pup strained against the leash to sniff at reporters' feet. "But I don't think he's quite ready for the protection detail yet."
White House Press Secretary Cassie Tatum said that the dog was a gift from Senator Andrew Thorn (D-NY) and his family to the Seaborns after the president expressed his fondness for Jack Russell terriers. The dog was named after eighth president Martin Van Buren, the first president to hail from New York state and reportedly had been returned to the breeder from its first family after the family's other dogs reacted aggressively towards it.
Tatum said that per ethics regulations, the Seaborns did pay the Thorns for their dog, although she declined to state the amount. Saying that the figures she was told included veterinary and obedience school fees, she promised the total amount paid will be released in the next financial disclosure form the president releases to the public.
