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| Timelash - DVD |
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 Name: The Borad, original name Megelen
Format:
Television show and Book
Time of Origin: Karfel, apparently
in the far future; died in Scotland in the twelfth century.
Appearances: "Timelash" and
appeared briefly in "The
Taking of Planet 5"
Doctors: Sixth
Doctor, unreleased encounter
with the Third
Doctor
Companions: Peri Brown,
unreleased encounter with
Jo Grant and
(The evidence suggests) Captain
Mike Yates
History: The Borad is unique among The Doctor’s
villains in that, although he encountered The Doctor twice, we have
only witnessed the second encounter The Doctor had with him. While
the precise details of The Doctor’s first encounter with the
Borad have never been seen, it is known that The Doctor originally
encountered the Borad in his third incarnation - apparently while
travelling with Jo Grant and Captain
Mike Yates, due to reference being made
to The Doctor having more than one companion on his first visit during
his second one and The Doctor’s original plan to take Jo and
Mike to Karfel in "Speed
of Flight" - when the Borad was
a scientist named Magellan. Although The Doctor initially befriended
Magellan - the two becoming so close that The Doctor actually told
Magellan about his ability to regenerate - he eventually betrayed
Magellan to Karfel’s ‘Inner Sanctum’ - presumably
a ruling body of some kind - after discovering that Magellan was
carrying out unethical experiments on the dinosaur-like creatures
known as the Morlox, who dwelt in Karfel’s underground tunnels.
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| Timelash - VHS |
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Somehow
escaping the Sanctum’s judgement - it was never revealed whether
he simply served his sentence or somehow managed to escape punishment
- Magellan continued his experiments with the Morlox, only for things
to go drastically wrong when an experiment involving Mustakozene-80 and
a Morlox resulted in Magellan and Morlox undergoing spontaneous tissue
amalgamation, combining Magellan and the Morlox into a single being.
Although this combination granted Magellan enhanced strength, longevity
and intellect - the extent of this last was never made clear as we have
never seen how intelligent he was before the amalgamation occurred -
Magellan grew to loath his new, mangled appearance, hiding away from
the people of Karfel and ordering all reflective surfaces to be covered
up as he established himself as the ruler of the planet. He even had
an image of The Doctor concealed, banning all official record of The
Doctor’s visit from public access, with only some rumours and the
occasional relic - such as a picture of Jo Grant in a locket that had
been given to a Karfelian - remaining as mementos of The Doctor’s
presence.
Using the image of a dignified old man to
communicate with his subjects, the now-renamed Borad established a subtle
yet significant wave of terror across Karfel, using various androids
to enforce his orders, with rebels either being executed or sentenced
via Timelash - a time corridor - to banishment on Earth in twelfth-century
Scotland (Where Karfel was in relation to Earth’s history at this
time was never specified). On a more long-term note, the Borad also manipulated
events to cause a breakdown in relations between Karfel and the planet’s
former allies the Bandrils, the Borad rescinding the grain supply treaty
which had underpinned the relationship between the two civilizations
to provoke war, knowing that the Bandrils’ use of bendalypse warheads
would wipe out all the Karfelons but leave the Morloxes and the Borad
alive, allowing him to rebuild his planet’s civilisation.
The
Borad’s schemes eventually drew The Doctor back to Karfel when
the Sixth
Doctor and Peri accidentally ‘ran into’ the
Timelash just as Vena, a young woman whose father had just been executed
by the Borad and whose lover was about to be sent to the Timelash,
fell into the Timelash by accident, the presence of the TARDIS in
the time corridor deflecting the Timelash from its usual destination
so that Vena arrived in Scotland in the late 1800s. Tracking the
corridor to Karfel to investigate, The Doctor was horrified to learn
what had happened to the planet that he had last visited, but was
forced to help the Maylin Tekker - the Borad’s ‘official’ second
in command, although in the end he was more of a figurehead than
anything else - recover Vena when Peri was threatened, Vena having
stolen an amulet that the Borad required for his plan to succeed.
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The Taking Of Planet 5
(Simon Bucher-Jones & Mark Clapham) |
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While The Doctor travelled to Earth to recover Vena,
the Borad, observing Peri, concluded that she possessed the necessary
strength of spirit to serve as his mate, abducting her and attempting
to expose her to the same conditions that had triggered his own mutation.
Fortunately, having returned to Karfel, The Doctor was able to use
the Kontron Crystals that served as the Timelash’s power source
as a weapon, using them to absorb energy fired at them and subsequently
deflect it back at its source. Thus armed, The Doctor confronted
the Borad, recognising his old acquaintance and learning of his plans
before deflecting a beam back at the Borad that aged him to death.
Although The Doctor was able to negotiate peace with
the Bandrils by using his current status as President of Gallifrey
- having been officially appointed to the role in "The
Five Doctors" - the Borad, still alive - The Doctor having killed
a clone earlier - attempted to threaten The Doctor and the rebels
into abducting the Bandril delegation when they came to Karfel by
threatening Peri, still determined to mutate her into his bride.
However, The Doctor mocked the Borad’s actions, taunting him
with his fear of rejection; not only had he hidden away from the
people of Karfel for decades, but even as he threatened to mutate
Peri he refused to allow her to see him before she had transformed
herself, knowing that she would always find him repulsive even if
she physically resembled him. Breaking a picture of his third incarnation
to reveal a mirror to the Borad, The Doctor mocked his enemy’s
rejection by society as the Borad screamed in rage and pain at the
sight of himself, subsequently hurling the Borad into the Timelash.
Although The Doctor presumed that the Borad would become
the inspiration for some of the tales of the Loch Ness Monster, it
was revealed in the later novel "The
Taking of Planet 5" that
the Borad, upon his arrival, was immediately killed by agents of
the Celestis - Time Lords who had literally ‘cut’ themselves
out of the entire universe to escape the Future War between the Time
Lords and an initially unrevealed Enemy - eliminating temporal anomalies
on Earth while investigating recent Time Lord activity on the planet. |
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