The Cinder The Cinder was a Phoenix who was known to exist on Earth from the 12th century B . C . until 1814 . Biology . The creature hatched from a stone - like egg , and took the form of a bird made of living flame ; in this form the creature was known as the Phoenix . The Phoenix survived by absorbing every last spark of heat from everything around it ; if allowed to , it would absorb all the heat from the entire world and kill everything else on the planet . If the Phoenix were extinguished , the creature was able to be reborn from the smallest remaining cinder of its flame . This Cinder , which retained limited memories of its former life as the Phoenix , would slowly absorb enough heat energy to regenerate into its solid egg form , go through its embryonic Phoenix stage within the egg , hatch from the egg as the Phoenix , and begin its life cycle anew . In its cinder and egg forms , the creature was able to telepathically communicate with and influence human s around it in order to ensure its own survival and rebirth . ( AUDIO : " Frostfire " ) Timeline . In early history , the Cinder existed as a developing lifeform inside an egg . This egg eventually came into the possession of the showman Captain McClavity , who exhibited it at the River Thames frost fair in 1814 . At the fair the creature brought about its own hatching , whereupon it was born as the Phoenix . The First Doctor , his companions Vicki Pallister and Steven Taylor , and local novelist Jane Austen were able to defeat the creature by removing its source of heat ; as it died , it seemed to Vicki that the newborn creature was looking directly at her in a plea for mercy . As it did so , Vicki looked into its flames and unknowingly absorbed its final spark as it caught in her eye . In this way , the creature survived undetected . Much earlier in Earth ' s history but later in Vicki ' s personal timeline , she had left the Doctor ' s TARDIS to live in ancient Troy with the Trojan Troilus . Feeling trapped in a time in which she didn ' t truly belong and missing the Doctor and her life aboard the TARDIS , Vicki wept for her loss , and found the single spark of the Cinder among her tears . Vicki decided to keep the creature alive in an oil lamp , hidden in a cold , damp crypt beneath a temple in Carthage . There she occasionally visited and talked to the Cinder , having finally found someone with whom she could discuss her adventures with the Doctor . The Cinder berated Vicki and her storytelling while simultaneously craving her telling of it , even telepathically forcing her to continue the tale against her will at one point . The Cinder seemed , to a degree , to vicariously relive its faint memories of its past as Vicki told its tale . The Cinder was insistent that the story could be changed to ensure its victory , but Vicki dismissed the possibility and always told the story in the same way . Vicki knew that long after her time had passed , the Cinder would eventually regenerate into its egg form and encounter her younger self in 1814 . Vicki regretted that she could not alter events to save the people the Phoenix had killed , but she took solace in the knowledge that it would harm nobody else as it was eternally trapped in the same looped sequence of events . ( AUDIO : " Frostfire " )