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Sharaz Jek
(1984) |
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| Christopher Gable |
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Christopher Gable CBE was born in, March 1940,
in London and studied at the Royal Ballet School
before joining the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet
in 1957. He was promoted to soloist in 1959 and a
principal in 1961.
He left the Royal Ballet in 1967 to pursue a career
in acting and appeared in a number of television and
film productions including
the BBC films Song of Summer (1968) and The
Dance of the Seven Veils (1970), The Music
Lovers (1970),
an adaptation of The Boy Friend (1971), The
Rainbow (1989) and the Cinderella film musical The
Slipper and the Rose (1983).
It was though in 1984 that he appeared in Doctor
Who playing the part
of anti-hero Sharaz Jek - his one and only appearance
in the show.
His involvement with Ballet continued when, in 1982,
he founded the Central School of Ballet with Ann Stannard.
Then five years later he was appointed Artistic Director
of Northern Ballet Theatre.
In 1996 Gable was awarded the CBE for his services
to British Dance.
Unfortunately though, in October 1998, Christopher
Gable died from cancer aged 58. |
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 Although his motives and actions would normally
make him The Doctor’s automatic enemy, Sharaz Jek proved
to be a surprising ally to The Doctor in his last moments, and
indeed generally treated The Doctor comparatively well during
their acquaintance despite the fact that he was a ruthless gun-runner
and drug-smuggler while The Doctor was only his prisoner.
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| Sharaz-Jek, The Doctor and
Peri |
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Originally a doctor with an appreciation
for beauty, Sharaz Jek became interested in the manufacture
of androids, an interest that lead him into a partnership with
the businessman Morgus to harvest the valuable mineral known
as spectrox, capable of extending the human lifespan if refined
properly, which required androids to do the work as it was toxic
to humans if handled incorrectly. Spectrox was found only on
the planet Androzani Minor, a desert world of superheated mud
subject to mud-bursts - molten geysers of mud erupting from
deep within the surface - when it was particularly close to
its parent planet of Androzani Major. Although their partnership
initially progressed well for both Jek and Morgus, Morgus attempted
to betray and kill Jek by supplying him with faulty detection
equipment so that he would be exposed to a mud burst, the resulting
blast leaving Jek disfigured even as he managed to retreat to
a baking chamber.
Seeking revenge for his disfigurement
- which it was implied left him in continual pain from the
burns, Jek commenting once that his hatred of Morgus and desire
for revenge were all that sustained him now -, Jek used his
androids to take control of the spectrox refinery stores,
wearing a mask and bodysuit to hide his scarring. Jek was
secure in his position despite the threat of Federal troops
attempting to regain control of the spectrox stores, commenting
that it would take them five years to seriously threaten him,
and doubting that the electorate would wait that long when
it could simply accede to his demands for Morgus’s head
in its own blood. Unknown to Jek, Morgus was helping him maintain
his position by indirectly supplying Jek with weapons to arm
his androids against Androzani Minor’s forces, Jek paying
for the weapons with spectrox that Morgus could then sell
to Androzani Major at higher prices due to its scarcity.
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| The Caves of Androzani |
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The Doctor became involved in Jek’s war when
the TARDIS materialised
on Androzani Minor and the Fifth
Doctor and Peri were
arrested on suspicion of being gun runners. Although Morgus
ordered them to be immediately executed, Jek,
starved of company and beauty and having developed an affection
for Peri after witnessing her on his security cameras, was
able to arrange for The Doctor and Peri to be replaced by
android duplicates before their executions, in the hopes that
he could preserve Peri’s beauty with spectrox and soothe
his own loneliness. However, he was unaware that The Doctor
and Peri had come in contact with raw spectrox earlier, thus
unintentionally infecting themselves with spectrox toxaemia
and leaving them only around a day to live unless they acquired
the antidote.
Learning from Major Salateen -
one of Morgus’s closest associates whom Jek had replaced
with an android some months back - that the cure for spectrox
toxaemia required the milk of a giant queen bat from the lower
caves of Androzani, The Doctor was forced to lead Peri and
Salateen in an escape while Jek was away conducting a deal
to try and recover the milk (The Doctor able to evade Jek’s
defences as they were programmed to stop humans leaving and
thus didn’t know what to make of his biology), only
for Salateen to take Peri to the surface while The Doctor
was forced to return to Jek when he was caught in the crossfire
of a gun-runner deal gone wrong. Although The Doctor was to
be taken to Androzani Major to be interrogated by Jek’s
contacts there while Peri was held captive by Morgus’s
men, The Doctor managed to escape captivity and take control
of the ship he was on long enough to crash-land back on Androzani
Minor, Jek managing to rescue Peri after Morgus killed the
President to conceal his own recent failures.
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| The Caves of Androzani |
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Despite Jek’s previous hostility towards
The Doctor, when The Doctor returned to Jek’s base to
recover Peri - fortunately arriving just after Jek’s
androids had defeated Morgus’s latest attempt to kill
Jek, although Jek had been briefly unmasked in front of Peri
during the fight -, Jek provided The Doctor with the oxygen
equipment and directions he needed to recover the bat’s
milk. Although now actively resisting his body’s desire
to regenerate as he couldn’t afford the time it would
take him to recover and save Peri, The Doctor was able to
find the milk he needed. Meanwhile, Morgus was finally betrayed
by his secretary, leaving him with seventeen counts of arrest
arrayed against him and deprived of his private funds, forcing
him to try and attack Jek’s lair directly in a desperate
attempt to liberate the spectrox supplies and redeem his reputation.
As he worked to keep Peri cool in the lab, Jek was confronted
by Morgus and his last henchman, Jek unmasking himself as
he vented his rage at Morgus before being shot by Morgus’s
henchman. As his last android killed the henchman, Jek forced
Morgus’s head into the extractor fans before dying in
the arms of his most accomplished android, The Doctor returning
to the base with barely enough time to take Peri away before
it was destroyed by a mudslide.
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| Behind the Mask |
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Although Jek’s temper and
insanity made him a danger to those he perceived to be his
enemies, when faced with an immediate need to make the right
decision he was able to put aside his anger and pain long
enough to help The Doctor, and even his vendetta showed a
certain sanity as he mainly directed his rage against a greedy,
cruel man who unquestionably deserved his fate.
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