Darkel Lady Inquisitor Prime Darkelatraquistahastrad ( Darkel for short ) of the House of Jurisprudence served on the High Council of Gallifrey . Biography . Like all Time Lord s , Darkel was taken from her family at the age of eight for the selection process in the Drylands . Staring into the Untempered Schism as part of a Time Lord initiation rite , Darkel was inspired by what she saw in the Schism . ( PROSE : " A Brief History of Time Lords " ) Involvement in the Doctor ' s trial . Darkel presided over the Sixth Doctor ' s trial on the Time Lord Space Station Zenobia . The Valeyard acted as prosecutor . ( TV : " The Mysterious Planet " , TV : " Mindwarp " ) The Doctor acted as his own defence lawyer . ( TV : " Terror of the Vervoids " ) An honest woman , Darkel presided over a show trial meant to draw attention away from the corrupt High Council . With political unrest demanding a new Lord President and the Doctor unwilling to take the job himself , he gave a symbolic vote of confidence to Darkel before departing in his TARDIS . ( TV : " The Ultimate Foe " ) The Valeyard on trial . Darkel oversaw the trial of the Valeyard . She brought the charges against him whilst the Sixth Doctor provided his defence . After the Valeyard was seemingly executed , Darkel followed the Doctor to a satellite of Etarho , where she discovered that the Valeyard had survived . She witnessed the Valeyard escape from her grasp , and left the satellite with the Doctor in his TARDIS . The Doctor warned Darkel that the Valeyard would try to assassinate her now that he was free . ( AUDIO : " Trial of the Valeyard " ) Later events . By the time of Romana II ' s presidency , Darkel had become a deeply conservative and ferociously ambitious figure in Gallifreyan politics . She vehemently opposed Romana ' s reforms , particularly her invitation to off - worlders to become students of the Time Lord Academy . She began her campaign innocuously when she was invited by Coordinator Narvin , another opponent of Romana , to undertake an inquiry into Romana ' s actions . ( AUDIO : " Weapon of Choice " , " The Inquiry " ) After a mutually satisfactory resolution to the inquiry , Darkel conspired with Narvin and also with the disgraced Andred to overthrow Romana by any means . She allowed Andred to escape and had Narvin frame him for the murder of the Archivist . ( AUDIO : " Lies " ) She continued to plot against Romana with anyone whom she thought to be useful . When she learned that Romana ' s genetics had been shaped by Pandora , she tried to convince Cardinal Braxiatel it was too great a risk for her to be president . She manipulated Leela into convincing Romana to appoint Braxiatel and Wynter to accidentally release Pandora . Darkel manoeuvred Braxiatel into exile when he absorbed aspects of Pandora into his mind . ( AUDIO : " Pandora " ) She used her public vidcasts to make the public weary of the academy and started to remove alien students from it . ( AUDIO : " Insurgency " ) During this period , Darkel received advice and guidance from a disembodied voice in the Vaults . Unbeknownst to her , it was the voice of Pandora . With Braxiatel out of the way , Darkel challenged Romana for the presidency . She also plotted with Commentator Antimon to plant bombs aimed at the alien students . Antimon , however , was a follower of the Free Time movement , using Darkel ' s patronage to his own ends . He tried to kill Romana , Darkel , and the High Council when they met for the election . The plot foiled , Romana declared herself Imperiatrix , effectively dictator , denying Darkel the election . At that moment Pandora took physical form and also claimed the Imperiatrix title . Darkel realised too late that she had been duped by Pandora . ( AUDIO : " Imperiatrix " ) Desperate for survival , Darkel sided with Pandora and prosecuted the civil war against Romana on her behalf . ( AUDIO : " Fractures " ) She proved to be a ruthless and determined warlord , but her arrogance led to her capture by the enemy and being on the losing side . She gave Matthias a disc that contained a new variation of the Dogma Virus . ( AUDIO : " Warfare " ) She was pardoned . With Romana incapacitated , she was appointed by Acting President Valyes as his successor . ( AUDIO : " Appropriation " ) The disputed presidency again had to be put to a vote , but again Darkel was thwarted , this time by the returning Braxiatel . Provoking him into releasing the Pandora entity , Darkel discovered that Pandora had been targeting her all along , and that Brax had been protecting her . Darkel ' s subsequent possession by Pandora destroyed her mind and killed her . ( AUDIO : " Mindbomb " ) Alternate timeline . In an alternate timeline where the Cybermen invaded all of time and space , Darkel agreed with the Sixth Doctor that he and Mel Bush should follow the Valeyard into the Matrix . ( COMIC : " " )