Hello whovians, today I would like to share with you all some new information about one of my favorite species from DW, the amazing (and cute) Lupari! As some of you know this week we got the release of new episodes from Big Finish: Classic Doctors New Monsters, and one of the episodes, entitled “The Dying Breed” by Tim Foley, featured an adventure with the 4th Doctor and the Lupari, I will leave the synopsis of the episode here:
“When the Doctor, Leela and K9 land on the Lupari homeworld tracking a temporal anomaly, they find a kingdom in disarray.
The Great Lord Garzan’s son has been attacked, and strange beasts roam the frozen landscape. Whilst Leela spars with the new heir, the Doctor and K9 must work out how all these strange events are connected.
Little do they know that their discoveries will shake the Lupari to their core…”
This episode is very important for more information around the Lupari, since we never got any more information about them since the Flux, at least that I know about! So I decided to gather on my own the information from this episode that I consider important! Please, be aware that this thread features spoilers from the story, and of course, from the Flux!
Homeworld
One of the first informations that we got in this episode is around the homeworld of the Lupari, the Doctor states for Leela that it’s set in a completely different galaxy of the Earth, this was implied on the Flux event, since they arrive from a long distance on their spaceship, but aside from that, everything that the Doctor explains is completely new. He reveals that the Lupare, their homeworld, is, in fact, a habited ring that has cities and settlements all around the loop. He shows to Leela that the stars they see in the sky are not in fact stars, they are lights coming from those cities all around them.
When Leela argues that such a thing is impossible, the Doctor states that this is just a spectacular stellar engineering, in this dialogue the Doctor also leaves clear that this is his first time (at least that he remembers) on the homeworld. It’s also mentioned that most people refer to this ring as a giant space dog collar!
I do find this information pretty interesting, since I particularly never saw anything like this homeworld in science fiction. We do have some space stations that look alike, but never big enough to be a homeworld of an entire race. It would be really amazing to see some official art works, or even a glimpse of that on the TV show of how large and beautiful this place is!
Another small detail revealed is that the Lupare is a cold “planet”, and that the Lupari are used to colder temperatures!
I found this artwork that reminded me a little bit of Lupare, it’s from O’Neill Cylinder
Social structure
Analyzing what was stated in the episode, the structure of the Lupari species is similar to human medieval social structure, with a landlord in charge of the area and it’s title being passed through blood, and this hierarchy is highly respected, with soldiers serving their lord.
The Doctor eventually gets to talk with a local, a scientist in fact, and they ask about the social structure. The scientist explains that there are five hordes (groups) of Lupari in total: The Thurda, the Farthing, the Feral, the Folded, and the First. I may have misspelled some of the groups names, since english is not my first language, so if any of you that listened to the episode and understood something else, please let me know in the comments so we can improve those informations! The lupar also mentions that all those groups are currently united in peace, which reveals that sometimes there may be conflicts between them.
Just as the Doctor states, I do find this structural “tribal”, and makes me wonder if after centuries of evolution until the events of the Flux this same structure remains or was changed, I could theorize for hours about the history of this civilization!
Lupari’s Culture
One of the most interesting details about this species that is reinforced in this episode is their sense of pride and that they are superior to any of other species, this is implied by the personality of Karvanista on the Flux season, but through this episode we were able to understand that this is not restricted to an individual characteristic. The vast majority of Lupari shown in the episode had a strong sense of being superior towards the Doctor and Leela, and only respected K-9 (I absolutely loved that bit!). Another detail about their culture is the violence and war, just as stated in the episode, the Lupari language is violence, which was already clear on the TV show.
The Connection with the Humans
Due to a temporal disturbance that resulted on a portal between the Lupari homeworld and the stone age from Earth, several humans were transported to Lupare, after the Doctor sorts everything out in the episode, they accept to guide the humans to go through the temporal rift, and even see briefly Earth. The tear stayed open and the connection with the humans got stronger through the years, which will result in the genetic bond we see on the Flux!
The Connection with the Fugitive Doctor
One of the main characters of this story, a Lupar that has visions of the past and future, due to the temporal wormhole, states that the Doctor already knew, and very well, the Lupari through the years, and had already forgotten them. This is clearly referencing the Fugitive Doctor storyline and their connection with Karvanista, it’s very exciting to get more information on this period of the Doctor, hopefully we will get even more with the Fugitive Doctor series of Big Finish!
It’s also stated a series of facts that will happen regarding the Doctor, which we may theorize if those happen during the Fugitive or not.
1 - The Doctor will visit many times Lupare and circle around the homeworld;
2 - They will be present to the genetic bounding that was mentioned in the Flux. This fact I believe happened during the Fugitive period, since when the 13th meets Karvanista, they seem surprised to understand the genetic bond!
3 - They will also fight in a great war with the Lupari, and it’s stated the Doctor will forget this, so again, more Fugitive period mentioned here!
4 - It’s also mentioned the end of the Lupari, that it’s probably a direct reference to the Flux!
In the end of the episode, it’s showed the Doctor arriving again on Lupare and this time with Adric, to show him the place and culture, and also check it out if everything is fine, including the safety of the humans.
I really like to think that the Doctor after the events of the episode visited Lupare constantly, and as shown with Adric, used to take his companions to pay a visit and even help the Lupari! It’s so beautiful seeing this connection between the Doctor and this species!
So, I end here my thread, I really hope I got all the important information that we see in the episode. If any of you that listened, or even saw some other information in another media about the Lupari and could share here, I would love to listen and learn more about them! I’m very excited to see what the future holds for them, maybe in books, new audio-dramas, comics or even the TV show!