BTW...the above ^^ is based on my suspicion that GRRM was a Dr. Who fan in the 80s. Check this out:
The episode in which it was revealed that the Doctor would be able to regenerate only 12 times aired on BBC in February 1983. The episode was novelized and published in print form in August 1983, and released to VHS (as part of the 20th season of Dr. Who) in the US in 1994.
The episode is titled "Mawdryn Undead", and was the first in a series of episodes that make up what is known as "the Black Guardian Trilogy" - without going into detailed plot, I'll just say that the whole arc revolves around this Black Guardian - embodiment of chaos and entropy, foil to the White Guardian, embodiment of good and order - trying to get his hands on the Key to Time, currently in possession of the Doctor.
"a cosmic artifact resembling a perfect cube that maintains the equilibrium of the universe. Since it is too powerful for any single being to possess, it has been split into six different segments and scattered across space and time, disguised by the raw elemental power within them into any shape or size. However, since the forces balancing the universe are so upset, the White Guardian needs to recover the segments of the Key to stop the universe so that he can restore the balance. The White Guardian also warns the Doctor of the Black Guardian who also wishes to obtain the Key to Time for his own purposes. In the final episode, the Black Guardian, disguised as the White Guardian, attempts to take the Key from the Doctor."
Anyway, there are some interesting plot parallels to ASOAIF that you can read about in
this synopsis , including an accident that leads to a patsy being contacted while in a coma by a less-than-scrupulous entity, the Doctor being petitioned to sacrifice his life/his remaining lives to 'save' others, a character that meets himself in a different time, and a group of humanoid aliens that are now disfigured and immortal thanks to their trying to figure out the Timelordy secret of regeneration. Oh...and a major character named "Nyssa", who ironically
sacrifices herself (albeit in a non-death way) at the end of the Mawdryn Undead storyline, thus ending the on-screen character in the series.
What I find most fun about this episode, though, is the story behind the alien mutants - these guys are literally trapped in their disfigured forms, forms that they brought about with their own time meddling, and they have been trying to get a Time Lord's help to reverse this ever since. They are the ones who ask Dr. Who to use his energy to free them, even though it will mean both death and ending all possibility of future regeneration.
"Mawdryn stole a metamorphic symbiosis regenerator, used by Time Lords in cases of acute regenerative crisis, but it
induced a perpetual, deathless mutation. He and his fellow scientists were
exiled from their homeworld, but their research could come up with no cure.
Every 70 years [e.g., a regular cycle - SP] the beacon guides the ship to within transmat rage of the Earth, and
one mutant travels down to Earth to see if help can be sought.
The mutants felt abandoned by the Time Lords.
If the Doctor were to sacrifice his remaining regenerations their plight could be ended. The Doctor states once more that he can only regenerate 12 times, and has done so four times already (see The Deadly Assassin). The power to save Mawdryn and the others from their undead existence and to cure Tegan and Nyssa of the viral equivalent that rendered time travel impossible eventually comes from the Blinovitch limitation effect, although a line of dialogue indicates that the TARDIS had a role in this as well."
And then there's this commentary from the
Dr. Who Television Companion:
"Mawdryn Undead is arguably one of the most ambitious stories that Doctor Who ever attempted. It utilises the time travel aspect of the series to the full and tackles head on an idea that had been only toyed with before - that of
an adventure taking place in two time zones, with events in the earlier one affecting those in the later one. ... A part of the story's appeal lies in its complexity. Not only has writer Peter Grimwade chosen to weave an intricate web of interaction between the two time zones, he has also been required by the production team to make this story the first part of the Guardian trilogy and to introduce a new companion for the Doctor ...
On top of all this, he has come up with Mawdryn and his band of shuffling mutants. These tragic characters are somewhat ill defined but, as McLachlan observed, have a unique motivation: 'For once the "baddies" didn't want to take over the Earth, but just wanted to die. A new idea in Doctor Who. But then Peter Grimwade doesn't write conventional scripts.'Sounds familiar, no?
Anyway, just some fun stuff - stuff that has me convinced that George is a closet Whovian.