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Enemy
of the Daleks
(David Bishop)
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 Name: Kisaabya
Format:
Audio
Time of Origin: Genetically engineered
on the planet Bliss during the Dalek wars.
Appearances: "Enemy
of the Daleks"
Doctors: Seventh
Doctor
Companions: Ace and Hex
History: Although they only fought him once, The
Doctor will doubtless always remember the Kisaabya, as his confrontation
with them left him with several uncomfortable reminders of his fourth
incarnation’s mission to wipe out the Daleks at their beginning
("Genesis
of the Daleks"), particularly since they were
created to serve essentially the same purpose for humanity that the
Daleks were once intended to serve for the Kaleds.
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| Sylvester McCoy |
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A
genetically engineered life-form, the Kisaabya were the creation
of Professor Toshio Shimura, inspired by his father’s collection
of silkworms when he was a child, intrigued at the possibilities
of what might happen if silkworms ate something other than their
traditional diet. Although he was forced to turn to the military
to gain the funding to support his research, Shimura’s efforts
seemed to prove successful when he established a research facility
on the planet Bliss, an interplanetary reserve likened to the Galapagos
Islands and located outside Earth's galaxy. Once on Bliss, Shimura
was able to gain access to the Ironweed plant, a metallic parasitic
plant with large thorns and mercury for sap, Bliss’s unique
environment causing the flora and fauna to be significantly larger
than usual. Using genetic engineering technology to cross-breed silkworms
with Piranhalocusts - a ruthless race of insects -, Shimura was able
to create the Kisaabya, a race specifically designed to consume the
Daleks.
On the surface, the Kisaabya were the perfect
living anti-Dalek weapon, achieving Shimura’s goal of making the
Daleks less deadly by creating a predator for them rather than them remaining
on the top of the galactic food chain. In their adult stage, the Kisaabya
were incapable of eating flesh, instead consuming metal, but they required
living flesh in order to lay their eggs so that the next generation could
hatch, the larval Kisaabya - resembling enlarged Piranhalocusts - subsequently
eating flesh and spinning large iron-like cocoons so that they could
develop into the next stage. Shimura had intended to keep the Kisaabya
contained until he could breed them to a point where they would be unable
to consume human flesh, but the arrival of a Dalek attack force in the
system apparently forced him to release the Kisaabya early so that they
could feed and breed in his fellow scientists, reasoning that the scientists
would die anyway when the Daleks arrived and their deaths would accomplish
something this way.
Shortly
before the Kisaabya completed gestation, a Valkyrie unit - an all-female
fighting force created to fight the Daleks - arrived on Bliss fleeing
a Dalek ship, their arrival being closely followed by the Seventh
Doctor, Ace and Hex, The Doctor having arrived on Bliss to ensure
that one of the great atrocities of the Dalek wars would take place
as history recorded. While Ace attempted to help coordinate the Valkyrie
unit in their fight against the Daleks, Hex tried to tend to the
wounded soldiers while The Doctor confronted Professor Shimura just
in time to witness the awakening of the first Kisaabya.
Although the Kisaabya proved effective against the Daleks
- Although vulnerable to most weapons, the speed of the Kisaabya’s
gestation and reproduction, coupled with their ferocity in attack,
helped to counter that weakness -, The Doctor was obviously unnerved
by the similarities between Shimura and Davros’s research,
both having created a new race to ‘save’ their own from
a prolonged war, as well as both being unprepared for their creations’ unwillingness
to obey them. Shimura protested that his creations would stop the
Daleks and save mankind, but the fact that the name ‘Kisaabya’ means ‘parasitic
saviour’ suggested to The Doctor that Shimura knew what he
was doing was ethically conflicted from the beginning. As the Daleks
invaded the facility, killing the Valkyrie unit, the Kisaabya attacked
the Daleks, tearing through a Dalek platoon, leaving the Black Dalek
- now infested with Kisaabya eggs - as the only survivor when The
Doctor discovered it.
Recognising
the horror of the Kisaabya when he realised that he actually felt
sorry for the Black Dalek, and with the Valkyrie unit now dead, The
Doctor, having confirmed that the Kisaabya’s Piranhalocust
nature would drive them to expand when they could survive on Bliss,
programmed the Black Dalek’s damaged casing to self-destruct
- with the Dalek’s permission - while positioning it beside
the base’s power cells. Reflecting on his fourth incarnation’s
failure to stop the Daleks at their beginning ("Genesis of the
Daleks"), The Doctor was uncertain if he had the right to destroy
the Kisaabya, but also knew that it was his place in history to trigger
the explosion. With the remaining Daleks on planet having ordered
their ship to depart to prevent the Kisaabya spreading before exterminating
themselves, The Doctor departed the base before the Black Dalek exploded,
destroying the facility and the Kisaabya... the very atrocity that
history recorded would take place. |
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