Great Intelligence The Great Intelligence was a mysterious entity . Few sources could agree exactly what the intelligence was . The Second Doctor described it as " a sort of formless , shapeless thing floating about in space like a cloud of mist , only with a mind and will . " The Intelligence was capable of possessing deceased bodies , controlling mechanised Robot Yeti , forming fear - dependent snow creatures , and was often prone to choosing individuals to do its bidding from a distance . Nature . According to one account , the Great Intelligence was an imprint of an inter - dimensional being , which existed in many realities , always ending up as the Great Intelligence and sharing the same basic attributes , although the Intelligences originated in various ways , including an immortal soul , and various Great Old Ones . ( PROSE : " Legacies " ) One imprint was the ascended immortal soul which began life as James Lethbridge - Stewart and ended millennia later as Mahasamatman . ( PROSE : " The Forgotten Son " ) Another imprint was originally from the universe before the Doctor ' s ; the being known as Yog - Sothoth and his brethren survived the end of their universe by passing through a parallel universe that ended one second after theirs . Shifting again allowed them to enter the current universe shortly after it began expanding . ( PROSE : " All - Consuming Fire " , " Millennial Rites " ) A third imprint was a Great Old One . ( AUDIO : " The Roof of the World " ) Like the other Great Old Ones , it may have lost its body when it ran from the Fendahl . ( PROSE : " White Darkness " ) Another account suggested that the Great Intelligence was created when Walter Simeon began speaking to a snowman created with a low - level telepathic field . The snowman reflected his most dark beliefs and thoughts , and it eventually formed its own consciousness , becoming the " dream [ that ] outlive [ d ] the dreamer " . ( TV : " The Snowmen " ) History . Early history . According to one source , Yog - Sothoth was a member , and the military strategist , of a race of beings called the Great Old One s , who were the equivalent of the Time Lord s in a previous universe to the one the Doctor resided . They shunted themselves into a parallel universe to pass into the next universe . Yog - Sothoth discovered it had gained god - like powers and decided to try the various gambits and games it had only played on computer s . Over the billennia , it mounted millions of campaigns against inhabited planets . It used the Hisk version of koala s on Hiskith and domestic animals equivalent to dog s on Danos . ( PROSE : " Millennial Rites " ) According to another source , the Intelligence had been exiled from another dimension , and was forced to wander the universe to find a body to possess . ( PROSE : " Doctor Who and the Web of Fear " ) The Snowmen . According to a third account , the Great Intelligence was formed when a young Walter Simeon discovered that a snowman he had built began to talk back to him . The snow itself featured a low - level telepathic field , causing it to respond to the thoughts and emotions of those around them . Because of this , the Intelligence was nothing more than Simeon ' s own dark thoughts reflected back at him . As an adult , Simeon established the Great Intelligence Institute as the snow slowly swarmed to Earth . In 1892 , its presence was sufficient enough to consume mankind . After Simeon ' s mind and memories were erased from after meeting the Intelligence , the Eleventh Doctor was surprised to see the Intelligence survived . The Doctor discovered that it had learned to survive beyond physical form . Controlling the now - mindless Simeon , it attacked the Doctor , but was stopped in the last minutes of Christmas Eve when the snow changed to " rain " , mimicking the form of the tears of Captain Latimer ' s family after Clara Oswin Oswald ' s death . The Intelligence did not totally perish , and in fact learned to survive beyond physical form . It continued with the belief that the London Underground was a key strategic weakness in the London metropolitan area . ( TV : " The Snowmen " ) The Yetis . At some point in the 18th century , it possessed the Tibet an lama Padmasambhava while it was travelling the astral plane and forced him to build its Robot Yeti over the next two centuries . ( TV : " The Abominable Snowmen " ) According to one account , it was Padmasambhava that called it a " great intelligence " , a name it used from that point on . ( PROSE : " The Forgotten Son " ) At the Det - Sen Monastery in 1935 , the Second Doctor and Edward Travers , a westerner determined to find the Yeti , intervened with the Intelligence ' s plans to take the mountain the Monastery stood on , the Lama realising that it would want to cover the world as slime . The Intelligence knew of the Doctor , and described him as " a man of great knowledge and intelligence . " They destroyed the pyramids that controlled its Yetis and Padmasambhava ' s physical body died as the Intelligence melted away . ( TV : " The Abominable Snowmen " ) The London Event . Now under pressure from the other Old Ones , who themselves embarked on similar campaigns and conquered other planets , the Intelligence was forced to use the Yeti in London , an environment to which they were not well suited . ( PROSE : " Millennial Rites " ) Circa the 1960s , the Yeti re - activated and the Intelligence manifested as webbing . It ensnared the Doctor ' s TARDIS in space and forced it to land in the London Underground . Reunited with Travers , the Doctor assisted British military in their battles with the Yeti . The Intelligence re - animated and possessed the corpse of Staff Sergeant Arnold , using him to track the Doctor ' s actions . The Intelligence captured the Doctor and tried to use a conversion headset to take over the Doctor ' s body . The Doctor attempted to reverse the process , allowing him to absorb the Intelligence and destroy it . When the control spheres that formed the focus of the Intelligence were smashed by Jamie McCrimmon , the Intelligence vanished , ( TV : " The Web of Fear " ) powerless but still alive , though blinded in unending darkness . ( HOMEVID : " Downtime " ) In October of that same year , the Intelligence followed Lethbridge - Stewart , Sally Wright , and Owain Vine to New York City , where it attempted to use Yeti and infected Rat s to turn the population of the city into a vast computer . Aided by Edward Travers and Adrienne Kramer , the three successfully repelled the invasion . ( PROSE : " Times Squared " ) Further exploits . In the 1980s , the Intelligence again used the Yeti in Tibet to attempt world conquest , only to be defeated by the Lama Gampo upon calling the real Tibetan Yeti to fight the machines . ( COMIC : " Yonder . . . The Yeti " ) The Intelligence later contacted the Doctor ' s former companion Victoria Waterfield and manipulated her into using computers to return to physical existence in 1995 , attempting to cover the Earth in web . When the generators to the New World University were destroyed , the main bulk of the Intelligence faded away . ( HOMEVID : " Downtime " ) The Seventh Doctor , Lysandra Aristedes and Sally Morgan encountered the Great Intelligence during their travels in the black TARDIS . ( AUDIO : " Black and White " ) The new millennium . In 1999 , Anne Travers , who had been left traumatised by the Intelligence ' s first attempts to enter the universe , believed millionaire Ashley Chapel would try to use a special program , the Millennium Codex , to summon the Intelligence to Earth . She prepared a counterspell to force it back into its own reality . However , this had destructive effects , including dragging the Intelligence back to Earth and merging it with the benevolent god Saraquazel into a single malevolent being . It altered reality around London to form the Great Kingdom , a realm partly obeying the laws of the Intelligence ' s universe , N - Space , and Saraquazel ' s universe ; here , the Doctor ' s TARDIS was worshipped as " the Lady TARDIS " and the Intelligence was worshipped as " the key and the guardian of the gate , " forming the triad of gods with Saraquazel . Anne sacrificed herself to fix reality , but instead of destroying the Intelligence , she banished it . The Intelligence became stranded on the edge of the universe , riding the blue shift outwards into infinity . ( PROSE : " Millennial Rites " ) Losing its memory . According to one account , the Intelligence soon found itself on Earth in the year 1842 . There it met a boy , who he connected to as the boy became a man . The Intelligence grew stronger , but still felt gaps in its memory covering centuries . It chose the name Great Intelligence , as given to him in Tibet . He continued to use the man ' s form after his death , lingering for a hundred years in search of minds to use for its own . ( PROSE : " The Forgotten Son " ) Wi - Fi . At some point in the late 20th century , while Miss Kizlet was still a young girl , the Great Intelligence began to " whisper in her ear , " leading her to eventually found her company . By 2013 , the Great Intelligence had influenced Miss Kizlet to establish an organisation based on the 65th floor of the Shard , which used the Wi - Fi and servants nicknamed Spoonhead s to capture human minds . The Great Intelligence used the internet as its " web . " Its operation fell apart when the Eleventh Doctor used a captured Spoonhead to trick Miss Kizlet into being trapped in the Wi - Fi after she refused to release the uploaded Clara Oswald , who was under the Doctor ' s protection . The workers downloaded Clara , Kizlet and others captured in the server , returning them to their bodies . When UNIT arrived at the Shard , the Great Intelligence ordered Kizlet to restore their employees to their " factory settings " , effectively erasing everyone ' s memories to avoid detection . ( TV : " The Bells of Saint John " ) Entering the Doctor ' s timestream . After the Siege of Trenzalore , ( TV : " The Time of the Doctor " ) the Intelligence used the Whisper Men to kidnap Madame Vastra , Strax and Jenny Flint from 1893 to Trenzalore . It spoke through their " conference call " link with Clara and River Song to take the Doctor from 2013 London to Trenzalore . The Whisper Men brought the Paternoster Gang to the Doctor ' s tomb on Trenzalore for the Intelligence could turn all of the Doctor ' s victories into defeats so the Intelligence could have his ultimate revenge . It did so by directly entering the Doctor ' s time stream , which appeared as an open wound in reality inside the tomb . However , this plan was foiled by Clara , who followed the Intelligence through the wound . Just as he was , she was ripped into countless versions of herself throughout history , and saved the Doctor countless times , undoing the damage the Intelligence had done to his timeline . ( TV : " The Name of the Doctor " ) Targeting the Brigadier . After interfering with countless points in the Doctor ' s timeline , the Intelligence returned to the London Event where another encounter with Clara , and the Second Doctor ' s attempt to destroy the younger Intelligence , severely damaged it , forcing the Intelligence to leave the Doctor ' s timestream . Realising that Clara would be waiting at every turn to defeat it , the weakened Intelligence travelled down the timeline of Alistair Lethbridge - Stewart instead , intending to kill the Doctor ' s greatest ally when he was a boy . The Intelligence arrived in 1937 and found itself drawn instead to Alistair ' s brother , James , who carried the original soul which would , centuries later , be reincarnated as the being who would become the Great Intelligence . Its curiosity drew itself to join with James , but it then found that it could not remove itself from its own soul . After manipulating James into killing himself , the Intelligence became trapped inside Remington Manor in Cornwall . Weeks after the original London Event , in 1969 , the Intelligence used Owain Vine , another reincarnation of the Intelligence ' s immortal soul . A final showdown in Remington Manor between the Intelligence and Lethbridge - Stewart saw the Intelligence finally defeated . The last trace of it permeated the ruins of Remington Manor . ( PROSE : " The Forgotten Son " ) Alternate timelines . In an alternative timeline the London Event succeeded , and both Colonel Lethbridge - Stewart and the Doctor were killed in the new timeline . Without them to stand against it , the Intelligence spread its influence throughout Southern England , bring thousands of minds into its own . The TARDIS , taking on human form , revealed the truth of the Intelligence ' s being , that it was the imprint of a multi - dimensional being , and a stalemate was called . The Intelligence could never win as long as the TARDIS existed , and the TARDIS could never restore time unless the Intelligence was cast out . Not wishing to continue the stalemate , the Intelligence allowed the TARDIS to cast it out into the void , and time was restored . ( PROSE : " Legacies " ) Parallel universes . On a parallel Earth , the Great Intelligence launched an attack on the Republic of Great Britain . Koschei , here having not become the Master , saved the world from the Intelligence but was then captured , tortured , and pumped for information for years by the Republican Security Forces . ( PROSE : " The Face of the Enemy " ) Personality . The Great Intelligence was arrogant and thought very highly of itself , informing the Doctor that his brain was too small to grasp its purpose . ( TV : " The Abominable Snowmen " ) It sometimes spoke in the plural , i . e . referring to itself as " we " , although this habit had worn off by the time of the London Event . ( TV : " The Abominable Snowmen " , " The Web of Fear " , " The Snowmen " ) Without a body , it became obsessed with having physical form , craving symmetry of light , colour , and shape . ( TV : " The Snowmen " ) Eventually , it grew tired of living as " a mind without a body " and went into the Doctor ' s timestream in order to die . ( TV : " The Name of the Doctor " ) Despite once describing revenge as a petty emotion of which it had no need for , ( TV : " The Web of Fear " ) the Intelligence took its defeats by the Doctor as unforgivable wounds to its pride and after several encounters with him , it had developed such a burning hatred that it went into his timestream in order to take revenge on him in the most painful way imaginable . ( TV : " The Name of the Doctor " ) It was also a malevolent and sadistic being , ( TV : " The Abominable Snowmen " , " The Snowmen " ) and was also extremely callous and self - absorbed , seeing as how it was unfazed by the fact that undoing all of the Doctor ' s victories would in turn cause the destruction of the universe . ( TV : " The Name of the Doctor " ) It was the unseen but generous Chancellor of New World University , with Victoria as Vice - Chancellor . It designed invasions based on a " Great Plan " it had , having been the military strategist of the Old Ones , and when it thought resistance was useless for humanity , it asked Brigadier Lethbridge - Stewart which part of its brilliant plan he found most effective . ( HOMEVID : " Downtime " ) When horribly bound to Saraquazel , it did not care about him or crave his assistance , thinking it possessed enough power and intellect to find its own escape . The Intelligence , however , did warn Saraquazel of the duplicity of human beings . ( PROSE : " Millennial Rites " ) Miss Kizlet believed that the Intelligence loved humanity in the same vein that Burger King loved cattle . The Intelligence was unconcerned about feasting on people ' s minds to grow stronger , and showed little concern for its servants , reverting them back to their original state of mind , although it did take the time to say goodbye to Kizlet before doing so . ( TV : " The Bells of Saint John " ) Powers . The Great Intelligence had no physical existence and thus relied on possession of living creatures , ( TV : " The Abominable Snowmen " , " The Web of Fear " ) taking on other shapes , ( TV : " The Name of the Doctor " ) or manipulating allies in order to manipulate its environment . ( TV : " The Snowmen " , " The Bells of Saint John " ) Existing on the astral plane , the Intelligence could enter the people it encountered , filling itself in every cell and having control of their every movement . It also increased Padmasambhava ' s lifespan , and reanimated the dead body of Staff Sergeant Arnold . ( TV : " The Abominable Snowmen " , " The Web of Fear " ) At full strength it could even save a human from fatal illness , or death by extreme age , if only to possess their bodies . ( PROSE : " Downtime " ) In addition , it could possess animals , like rat s and ant s , by extending its will , as well as inhabiting machinery like computer terminals . It resided in the New World University network while reaching out into the Internet . However , the majority of its consciousness was still trapped in the campus mainframe . ( HOMEVID : " Downtime " ) It also inhabited a computer system with a video monitor linked to the firm run by Miss Kizlet in the Shard . The peripheral units linked to this system could edit or absorb the mental traits of users , enabling Kizlet to feed the Intelligence . ( TV : " The Bells of Saint John " ) It could also exert a mental control similar to hypnosis without completely possessing a human , as it had with the monks in Tibet , Victoria Waterfield , Walter Simeon and Miss Kizlet . ( TV : " The Abominable Snowmen " , " The Snowmen " , " The Bells of Saint John " ) It also had considerable mental powers , namely telekinesis . ( TV : " The Abominable Snowmen " ) It was able to make a Eurotrain rear up like a snake and launched missiles , playing with them and engineering near - misses before letting them fall . ( PROSE : " Downtime " ) While merged with Saraquazel , it telekinetically constructed robot Yetis from its surroundings to defend itself . ( PROSE : " Millennial Rites " ) When the Paternoster Gang encountered the Intelligence on Trenzalore , it displayed considerable knowledge of the Doctor ' s past and future , listing people he had killed , as well as names he ' d have by the end of his life , including the Valeyard . When Madame Vastra asked how it had come by this information , it merely replied that it was information . ( TV : " The Name of the Doctor " ) It also tracked the Second Doctor and followed him through time and space , having built a machine that could drain his mind of knowledge and experience for the Intelligence . ( TV : " The Web of Fear " ) Biology and appeareance . The Second Doctor thought the best way to describe the Great Intelligence was as a " formless , shapeless thing , floating out in space like a cloud of mist , only with a mind and will . " ( TV : " The Web of Fear " ) Both Alistair Gordon Lethbridge - Stewart and the Eleventh Doctor identified it as a mind parasite , whereas the Intelligence considered itself a mass of thoughts with a single thought . ( HOMEVID : " Downtime " ; TV : " The Snowmen " ) It once reflected on whether or not it remembered what its original body was . ( PROSE : " Downtime " ) In all realities , the Intelligence constantly sought physical existence to replace being a shapeless , formless cloud hanging in space , ( PROSE : " Legacies " ) eventually adopting Walter Simeon as a recurring avatar , speaking in that guise through a large wall - mounted video screen , ( TV : " The Bells of Saint John " ) modelling the Whisper Men on Simeon ' s appearance , ( TV : " The Name of the Doctor " ) and appearing as Simeon to James Lethbridge - Stewart and Colonel Lethbridge - Stewart . ( PROSE : " The Forgotten Son " ) When not using a living being , the Intelligence maintained a basic manifestation as a three - sided pyramid composed of control spheres ( TV : " The Abominable Snowman " ) or ivory . ( HOMEVID : " Downtime " ) When forcibly summoned to Earth by Anne Travers , and being combined with three sets of physical laws in the Great Kingdom , the Intelligence was an emerald tetrahedron and , because of Travers ' meddling , was merged with the god Saraquazel . ( PROSE : " Millennial Rites " ) The Eleventh Doctor commented that the Intelligence was a hive mind , ( TV : " The Bells of Saint John " ) which accounted for the " mass of thoughts " theory , ( HOMEVID : " Downtime " ) while the Intelligence claimed itself as an embodiment of information , and Jenny Flint described it as " a mind without a body " . ( TV : " The Name of the Doctor " ) The Great Intelligence possessed some amount of artron energy , ( PROSE : " Millennial Rites " ) and could consume the mental energy of humans to grow stronger . ( TV : " The Bells of Saint John " ) In its many attempts to achieve form , the Intelligence tried to manifest as ice people based on the human form , ( TV : " The Snowmen " ) and a slime that glowed brightly with a piercing light . ( TV : " The Abominable Snowmen " ) It also manifested as a dense fog that consumed anything entering it , and a poisonous fungus which spread through the London Underground . ( TV : " The Web of Fear " ) A fourth invasion of Earth had it trying to perpetuate itself in every machine and being , with the whole planet cocooned in web . ( PROSE : " Downtime " ) At the end of its life , the Intelligence had never found substance , but rather used the Whisper Men , who appeared as face less humanoid s dressed just as Walter Simeon was when he died , to manifest in empty bodies . ( TV : " The Name of the Doctor " ) The Whisper Men told Clarence DeMarco that they were a manifestation of the Intelligence when they revealed the location of the Doctor ' s tomb to him . ( HOMEVID : " Clarence and the Whispermen " )