THE GUARDIANS

The Guardians are mysterious beings, existing outside the normal Universes of space and time.  There are two Guardians, White and Black, equal in power and who are almost exactly complementary in temperaments and intentions.  Just how great their powers may be remains unknown.

They exist to maintain the balance between good and evil in the Universe.   However, while the Black Guardian strives to destroy his counterpart and to plunge the Universes into chaos and despair, the White Guardian seeks only to maintain the balance between good and evil.

They cannot act directly in events in this continuum, but they can empower other beings to act for them.  When one chooses a champion for a given purpose, the other somehow knows and can oppose his actions with a champion of his own.  They are forced to accept the results of the ensuing battle.  Over the millennia, the balance of power has swung between the two of them a number of times.

The Time Lords know of their existence, but can hardly ever interact with them.   Normal beings cannot contact a Guardian.  However, Guardians can intrude physically into the space-time continuum in order to recruit their agents.  They have the ability to stop even a TARDIS while it is in the Vortex and to drain its power, should they so choose--providing they know where to find the craft.  But they are neither omnipotent nor omniscient.  The Doctor was able to hide from the Black Guardian for a considerable period of time using a randomizer device fitted to his TARDIS.

The Guardians do not need to be physically located, as normal beings must.  Nor do they need to breathe, eat, or sleep.  They have the ability to create temporary habitats about themselves for the convenience of the mortals that they communicate with, but have no need of such an environment for themselves.

The Doctor was first contacted by the White Guardian when there was a time of impending chaos.  He was asked to search for the six scattered segments of the Key to Time.   Once assembled into a perfect cube, the Key could stop the motion of all particles within the Universe for a brief span of time, in order to maintain the balance of the Universe.  The Black Guardian also sought the Key in order to use it to ensure the prevaalence of eternal chaos.

The six keys had been disguised and scattered through time and space to make them deliberately difficult to locate.  The Doctor was given a locating device which also served as the Core of the Key, holding it together when the pieces were found and joined.   With the assistance of his companion Romana, assigned to him by the White Guardian, the Doctor recovered the six segments of the Key, and finally assembled it.

The Black Guardian had not been idle, however.  He, too, had enlisted the aid of an agent, a strange being known only as the Shadow.  A dark, warped creature, the Shadow was apparently an immortal being who loved chaos and fear and could dominate the minds of others.  (It is possible that he, too, was a Time Lord, but his origin was never clarified.)  He waited for the Doctor to complete his collection of the first five segments as he had already identified and obtained the final segment--the Princess Astra of Atrios.  The Doctor managed to defeat the Shadow, who was killed when his Planet of Fear was destroyed by the Marshal of Atrios.

The Black Guardian then posed as the White Guardian in an attempt to trick the Doctor into releasing the Key to him.  However, because of the callous way in which the Guardian dismissed the fate of Astra, the Doctor saaw through the trick and instead of handing over the Key, the Doctor dispersed it once again into the unknown limits of time and space, in the process restoring Astra to her human form.  Thwarted in his plans, the Black Guardian swore to get his revenge on the Doctor.

Since the Doctor had dispersed the Key before the White Guardian had used it to stabilize the Universe, does this mean that he had failed in his quest, and that the Universe is now on its way into a state of utter chaos?  Perhaps not.  The Guardian had explained that it was necessary to stop every particle in the Universe for a brief span of time in order to relieve the stresses on the continuum.  The Doctor had in fact done this himself when he assembled the Key and used it to prevent the Marshal   from destroying Zeos.  For a short moment, the Key suspended all motion in the Universe, and this may well have been sufficient for the stresses to have been relieved.   If this were not the case, then why did only the Black Guardian appear to collect the key?  He must have known that the White Guardian's task was finished, and that he would be unobstructed in his plan to trick the Doctor by posing as the White Guardian.

With the failure of his plan, the Black Guardian began to plot the destruction of the Doctor.  He was thwarted for a while by the Doctor's use of the Randomizer, but the Doctor eventually removed the device from his TARDIS, and the Black Guardian was finally able to trace him.

Unable to interfere directly with the Doctor, the Black Guardian instead sought an agent to work through.  Knowing of the Doctor's impending arrival at a British public school, The Black Guardian found his agent there in the form of Turlough.  Turlough was an alieen being, human in appeatance, who had been stranded on the Earth and who desired more than anything to escape.  The Guardian offered him his freedom on the condition that he kill the Doctor.  Turlough--who could be quite ruthless when he put his mind to it--agreed to the terms.

To the Black Guardian's frustration, however, Turlough proved to be a poor choice.   His pathetic attempts to destroy the Doctor invariably failed, and it soon became quite clear that Turlough had grown to like and even admire the Doctor, and that he would never destroy the wandering Time Lord.  Accordingly, the Black Guardian decided to abandon Turlough at a point where he had another agent who might succeed in killing the Doctor.

Both Black and White Guardians knew of the existence of the Eternals, a race of beings that exist outside of Time itself.  Immortal, unchanging, and endlessly seeking diversion, the Eternals robbed the minds of Ephemerals--those beings implanted in Time--for their own amusement.  The Guardians had sponsored a race through space in solar-powered sailing ships, and the prize that would be offered to the winner would be Enlightenment.

To the Eternals, this was the ultimate prize--the wisdom to be able to achieve what they most desired.  A number of them entered into the race, including Striker and his First Officer, Marriner.  Both sought to win, but fairly.  Not all were so scrupulous--especially since cheating wasn't actually against the rules and was simply considered poor form.  Worst were Wrack, and her First Officer Mansell, who appropriately manifested themsleves as pirates in he race.

Wrack was also secretly the agent of the Black Guardian.  In his usual lying way, he had promised her power over her foes in return for her service, and she had accepted.   Focusing her own powers with the extra abilities bestowed upon her by the Black Guardian, she then destroyed her opponents, one by one.  The White Guardian saw the plan of his evil counterpart--to allow Wrack to win the prize.  In her case, she would use Enlightenment to rape the inhabitants of Time and plunge the Universe into eternal chaos.  The White Guardian attempted to contact the Doctor to seek his aid in stopping Wrack, but his powers were sapped by the Black Guardian, and he could only manage a cryptic warning.

Nonetheless, the Doctor did succeed in figuring out what was happening.  With the aid of Turlough--who had finally taken a stand as to whose side he was on--the Doctor defeated Wrack and Mansell, and he and Turlough were at the helm of the first ship to complete the course.  They were accordingly awarded the prize.  The Doctor turned it down, but the Black Guardian sought one last time to have Turlough kill the Doctor.  Turlough spurned this offer, causing the Black Guardian to temporarily to dissolve.  Enlightenment, it turned out, was the act of choosing, and Turlough had found what he most needed--peace.

The Black Guardian was not destroyed, however.  "While I exist, he exists also,"  the White Guardian explained,  "until we are no longer needed."  They are the equal and opposite halves of one great power.  They are the embodiments of light and dark, good and evil, right and wrong.  Their purpose is to guide and protect, as their name implies, those weaker and less advanced than they themselves are.  It may be that they will continue in this function for the rest of eternity.

White Guardian	Black Guardian