Morbius Morbius was a notorious and malevolent renegade Time Lord . His career was the first in millennia to dramatically alter Gallifrey ' s relations with the wider universe . He attempted to overturn Gallifrey ' s non - interference policy in favour of military conquest , but was exile d and eventually executed , only to survive , saved by his followers . Biography . Like all Time Lord s , Morbius was taken from his 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 , Morbius was driven mad by what he saw in the Schism . ( PROSE : " A Brief History of Time Lords " ) Reign , conquest and fall . Morbius ' s ambition led him to become the head of the High Council of Time Lord s . His warlike nature led him to urge the Time Lords toward a policy of conquest . While based on Gallifrey , Morbius formed a personal army of mercenaries , bought by his promises of time travel and immortality . His following came to be known as the Cult of Morbius . ( TV : " The Brain of Morbius " ) When the Time Lords finally denounced him , he and his followers abandoned Gallifrey and attacked the cultures of the outside universe . ( TV : " The Brain of Morbius " , PROSE : " Warmonger " ) Gallifreyan society struggled to deal with these inconceivable events . The long - term cultural changes brought about included the increased influence of the Celestial Intervention Agency . ( PROSE : " Warmonger " ) War with the Alliance . Uncomfortable with being seen to act directly in the universe , the Time Lord High Council eventually chose to fight the war by proxy . The Fifth Doctor , who had travelled into Gallifrey ' s past , was appointed " Supreme Coordinator of the Alliance Battle Fleet " and directed an unlikely army of human s , Draconian s , Cybermen , Ogron s , Ice Warrior s and Sontaran s against Morbius , with the Time Lords providing the Doctor with financial support and a flagship . Planet s involved in the conflict included Fangoria , Romark , Darkeen , Martak and Freedonia , which provided troops for Morbius , and Sylvana , Zandir , Tanith and Electra , which fell to him . ( PROSE : " Warmonger " ) With the help of the Sisterhood of Karn , ( PROSE : " Warmonger " ) who had originated on Gallifrey itself , ( PROSE : " " ) the Alliance at long last defeated Morbius on the Sisterhood ' s planet Karn . Although the verdict had been decided in advance , the Sisterhood still put Morbius on trial . ( PROSE : " Warmonger " ) The sentence of death by public and ceremonial disintegration was in part a panicked attempt by the Time Lords to caution the universe at large against ever opposing them . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) The Sisterhood ' s leader Maren attended the execution where Morbius was placed in a dispersal chamber and atomised to the nine corners of the universe . ( TV : " The Brain of Morbius " ) Morbius escaped death when one of his followers , the human surgeon Mehendri Solon , secretly removed Morbius ' brain prior to his disintegration . Solon was secretly aided by the Fifth Doctor , who knew that Morbius ' s brain had to survive in order to keep history on track . ( PROSE : " Warmonger " ) Solon went into hiding on Karn , where he began planning to build a new body for Morbius . The Sisterhood began to defend the Elixir of Life by causing nearby spacecraft to crash . These space travellers provided a regular supply of corpses from which Solon scavenged body parts for his project . ( TV : " The Brain of Morbius " ) Morbius ' brain . Over the years , Solon acquired a great many body parts , which he used to create Morbius ' s new body . These included lungs from a Birastrop , a left hand from Solon ' s unknowing assistant Condo , and a claw for his right with was used as a weapon . During this time , Morbius hid his presence from the Sisterhood by placing a barrier around his mind . This plan to create a new body for Morbius and wreck vengeance was nearing completion when the Fourth Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane arrived at his castle upon the planet Karn . The haphazardly - assembled body lacked a head to hold the brain of Morbius , so Solon planned to use the Doctor ' s head . After Morbius ' s brain was damaged during a fall when Condo fought with Solon on discovering his arm was being used , Solon was forced to use a plastic brain case . He had not used this before as there was the danger of a static electricity build - up which would probably damage the brain . Morbius was unable to speak for some time due to the damage sustained . Eventually Solon was able to repair this , but was killed soon afterward when the Doctor poisoned him with cyanide gas . As Morbius proclaimed his return to power , he was challenged to a mind - bending contest by the Doctor , who informed him that he doubted Morbius ' s power after his brain had spent so long trapped in the tank , and agreed . Morbius was apparently winning the contest , but the static build - up left him in a dazed , animalistic state . He didn ' t speak again , only groaning in agony . Upon leaving Solon ' s castle , he was chased by the Sisterhood of Karn , surrounded and forced over the edge of a high cliff , apparently falling to his death . ( TV : " The Brain of Morbius " ) After the Doctor left Karn , the Sisterhood went to the bottom of the cliff and recovered what was left of Morbius ' " not entirely destroyed " brain . Ohica led the wounded Morbius to the Death Zone to use the remains of Rassilon to give Morbius immortality . Ohica discovered that Iris Wildthyme had infiltrated the Sisterhood and used the Time Scoop to bring seven of Iris ' incarnations to Death Zone . The Irises were able to get past the Ice Warrior s , Ogron s , Sea Devil s , Zarbi , Mechanoid s , and Quark s that Ohica time scooped to the Death Zone and defeated Morbius before he gained immortality . ( PROSE : " Verdigris " ) Vengeance . Cristophe Zarodnix later became the leader of the Cult of Morbius and bought the planet Karn , forcing the Sisterhood off - world . On Karn , he found a fragment of Morbius ' brain and began to look for a Time Lord , so he could extract DNA to fuse with what was left of Morbius , in order to effect his resurrection . Zarodnix used DNA from the Time Lord agent Straxus to effect a new regeneration for Morbius . In his new form , Morbius used a stellar manipulator to suck the power of the Eye of Harmony , making the Time Lords powerless to stop his conquest . Morbius rebuilt his military forces , including mind - controlled Trell , and spent a decade conquering over ten thousand worlds , but his body was unstable and required frequent gene - splicings ( called " feedings " ) from Straxus . The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller , who had barely escaped from Gallifrey before Morbius used the stellar manipulator , arrived and worked with Straxus and the cybernetically augmented Trell policeman Rosto to steal the remote control for Morbius ' stellar manipulator . The Doctor succeeded in taking the control and releasing the Time Lords , who promptly broke the Laws of Time to prevent Zarodnix ' s purchase of Karn and Morbius ' resurrection ; however , at the moment before the Timeline was rewritten , Morbius and the Doctor fell from the balcony of Morbius ' palace . The Time Lords believed the Doctor to be dead , but he was actually transported by the Sisterhood to the planet Orbis . The timeline in which Morbius had been brought back to life was unmade , with only Lucie Miller and Straxus remembering it . ( AUDIO : " The Vengeance of Morbius " )