Karn Karn was once a colony planet of Gallifrey . It was later the home of the powerful Sisterhood of Karn and bolt - hole of the Time Lord criminal Morbius . The Sixth Doctor claimed that Gallifrey was " just to the left " of Karn . ( AUDIO : " Vortex Ice " ) Characteristics . Following the defeat of Morbius , Karn had become a burned - out and exhausted planet , a barren and rocky wasteland with many ruins and abandoned industrial plantations . It was littered with the wreckage of crashed spaceship s from many worlds , brought down by the Sisterhood ' s telekinetic powers out of fear of theft of the Elixir of Life . The Doctor stated that his birth had taken place a few billion miles away from Karn , by implication placing it near Gallifrey . ( TV : " The Brain of Morbius " ) Karn was the first place to pop into the Eleventh Doctor ' s head when he tried to think of the rainiest , wettest , stormiest place he had ever been so he could compare it to the storms created by the Cybermen in Klimtenburg , but then he decided Margate made for a better comparison than Karn . ( PROSE : " Plague of the Cybermen " ) History . Prior to the Last Great Time War . Karn was originally a colony of the old Gallifreyan Empire in the days before Rassilon . The Sisterhood of Karn were a remnant of the Pythia s who once ruled Gallifrey before being expelled by the triumvirate of Rassilon , Omega , and the Other . ( PROSE : " " ) During the Rassilon Era , the Sisterhood guarded the Sacred Flame . The Sacred Flame was used to distill the Elixir of Life , which could aid a Time Lord who experienced difficulty with regeneration . ( TV : " The Brain of Morbius " ) Morbius , a renegade Time Lord , in his bid for galactic conquest , came to Karn with a mercenary army . The Time Lords cornered him there , defeated , tried and supposedly executed him . ( TV : " The Brain of Morbius " ) The Crystal of All Power , sought by the Dalek s , was located on Karn . ( AUDIO : " Seven Keys to Doomsday " ) Mehendri Solon , a human surgeon belonging to the Cult of Morbius , had managed to secretly remove Morbius ' brain . He preserved it , and vowed to resurrect him . Solon settled on the planet in a disused hydrogen plant and sought a way to make Morbius live again . He used the body parts from dead crew members of different species ' crashed ships to create a crude , grotesque new body for him . The Fourth Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane Smith stumbled across this plot after the Time Lord s redirected the Doctor ' s TARDIS to the planet . The Doctor defeated Morbius , killing Solon in the process . ( TV : " The Brain of Morbius " ) Under Ohica ' s command , the Sisterhood of Karn attempted to give the wounded Morbius immortality , but they were defeated by Iris Wildthyme . ( PROSE : " Verdigris " ) During the Last Great Time War . The Sisterhood remained on Karn . Their leader , Ohila , anticipated the Doctor ' s return in hopes he could stop the war then raging across creation . The Eighth Doctor , responding to an emergency distress signal from a gunship that had been damaged in orbit , attempted to rescue the sole remaining crewmember , a woman named Cass . She refused to board the TARDIS when she realised he was a Time Lord , declaring that they had become as vicious as the Dalek s . The Doctor , unwilling to leave her to die , was killed when the ship crash - landed , still trying to convince her to leave . The Sisterhood restored him to life for only a few minutes , allowing him to regenerate into his next incarnation . ( TV : " The Night of the Doctor " ) After the Last Great Time War . Karn and the Sisterhood survived the Last Great Time War . ( WC : " Prologue " ) Colony Sarff visited Karn in their search for the Twelfth Doctor on behalf of Davros . Ohila ordered Sarff to deliver his message to her and leave . Unbeknownst to Sarff , the Doctor had already arrived on Karn and was listening in . ( TV : " The Magician ' s Apprentice " ) Afterwards , the Doctor and Ohila discussed Davros ' s invitation , and he left his confession dial with her . ( WC : " Prologue " ) The Twelfth Doctor crash landed on Karn and asked Ohila to take him to the Sisterhood ' s back door to Gallifrey . Ohila was reluctant at first , but after the Cybermen began to attack the Sisterhood , she showed him to the door . After the Doctor went through it , Ohila sealed the door behind him , trying to protect Gallifrey from a Cyberman invasion , unaware they had already taken control of the planet and Rassilon . ( COMIC : " Supremacy of the Cybermen " ) Alternative timelines . In a negated timeline , Cristophe Zarodnix purchased Karn from the Sisterhood . From there he used a fragment of Morbius ' brain and the gene s of Straxus to recreate Morbius , who from there ruled an empire . When the Eighth Doctor turned off Morbius ' Stellar Manipulator , the Time Lords prevented this Empire from forming , however Morbius fell with the Doctor into a chasm , which still happened despite the timeline being prevented . ( AUDIO : " Sisters of the Flame / Vengeance of Morbius " ) However the Doctor was saved by the Sisterhood and transported to Orbis . ( AUDIO : " Orbis " ) Behind the scenes . Origins . Karn originated in a theatrical play , " Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday " , written by Terrance Dicks . Dicks re - used the name in the script for " The Brain of Morbius " . The play featured an alternative Fourth Doctor . This wiki does not consider the play to be a valid source , and therefore sees " The Brain of Morbius " as the first appearance of Karn in the DWU .