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The Man in the Velvet Mask
(Daniel O'Mahony) |
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 Name: Minski de Sade
Format:
Book
Time of Origin: Technically France
in 1804, but an alternate version created by the mysterious ‘Masksmasters
of the Pageant’; unclear what date it was for the Masksmasters
by human standards, given that they must have had some knowledge
of the future in order to know how the new history their actions
created would compare to the old one but may have acquired this knowledge
by seeing the future rather than having experienced it directly.
Appearances: "The
Man in the Velvet Mask"
Doctors: First
Doctor
Companions: Dodo
History: Created by a flawed alien experiment
to better understand human history, Minski was possibly one of the
most twisted minds The Doctor has ever encountered. The result of
an alien experiment, Minski’s creators were the mysterious
race known only to The Doctor as the Maskmasters of the Pageant,
who created machines and wore masks to give themselves identities
(The evidence suggests that they were extra-dimensional in nature).
Intrigued by the relationship between individual psychology and the
historical dynamic of Earth, the Maskmasters removed Earth from space-time
around the year 1794 - presumably they came from the future as they
were clearly aware that their actions would change history and knew
what was originally meant to take place - and rebuilding it in a
pocket universe within a machine that could regulate and control
the physical nature of the world (It is crucial to note that the
Maskmasters were simply curious about what would happen if history
was different and did not seek to cause any actual harm to the human
race). Fascinated by the Marquis de Sade’s philosophies, which
had made him a quirk of his era, they created Minski - a mass of
bio-engineered tissue mimicking a human child, although lacking some
internal organs such as a heart - to serve as de Sade’s adopted
son on Earth, programming him with an epistemic code based on de
Sade’s philosophies, simultaneously functioning as the system
operator.
Unfortunately,
the Maskmasters miscalculated the effect that de Sade’s philosophies
would have on the project, resulting in Minski becoming corrupted
when de Sade’s epistemic code entered the system. This led
to Minski developing independence and seizing control of the system,
to the extent that he had de Sade locked up in prison - wearing a
velvet mask and known simply as ‘Prisoner Number Six’ to
conceal his identity - while replacing him with a clockwork automaton
that Minski could more easily control. In this new timeline, the
French Revolution never ended, First Deputy Minski single-handedly
maintaining his rule for ten years, rebuilding the Bastille during
his reign, and the original text of the Marquis de Sade's play Justine
survived under the name of The Misfortunes of Virtue. Determined
to spread and cement his control, Minski went on to create engineered
cybernetic maggots, capable of infecting humans by feeding on nervous
tissue and cerebral matter, travelling to the brain as they fed.
The maggots themselves died within hours, but the traces of their
engineered DNA that were left in the body as a result of their secretions
would leave the victims susceptible to Minski’s control, as
well as being passed on through sexual contact and all subsequent
generations, essentially functioning like a genetically-engineered
STD. By allowing British and American forces into Paris, where they
would drink infected water - as well as having intercourse with the
prostitutes Minski had infected with his maggots - the virus would
spread across the world, granting Minski complete control of the
components of the world-machine rather than just the operating system.
However, Minski’s plans were interrupted
when the First
Doctor and Dodo arrived on this new Earth in 1804, Dodo
subsequently being taken in by a group of travelling actors while The
Doctor was arrested as a curfew breaker. Sensing the arrival of a strange
new power in his world, Minski had the TARDIS brought to him in an attempt
to learn its secrets, unaware that The Doctor had been left in Prisoner
No. 6’s cell due to a filing error after No. 6’s scheduled
execution had been postponed by the prison governor. Despite The Doctor’s
weakened condition - he was aware that he was nearing the end of his
first incarnation, but was struggling to resist his approaching regeneration
because he was afraid of losing a part of himself when he changed into
his next body -, he managed to escape the Bastille with the aid of No.
6, subsequently using No. 6’s unique insight into the world that
the Maskmasters had created to find a way into the machine that controlled
the world, confronting the controllers of this world with his knowledge
of their actions.
Although The Doctor and No.6 were subsequently captured
by Minski and placed in his ‘murder machine’ - a maze
with multiple death-traps in it - after The Doctor refused to provide
Minski with access to the TARDIS, they were able to escape the traps
as the maze was designed based on Sade’s mind, giving No. 6
a unique insight into how the maze worked. Aided by the severed head
of a guard who had been through the world machine earlier - reanimated
as part of Minski’s experiments and briefly used as a vessel
for the Maskmasters to communicate with Minski -, The Doctor deduced
Minski’s true agenda, the head providing him with a key to
access the heart of the World Machine. With Sade now loathing the
corruption of the Revolution he had dreamt of at Minski’s hands
- The Doctor discovering the automaton Sade’s true nature when
it tried to attack him -, he attacked and wounded Minski, Minski
subsequently being stabbed by one of his guards when his attempt
to convince her to act as a host in which he could heal himself merely
exposed her to the true horror of what he was. Flinging Minski’s
body into the Machine’s heart to bring the system to a halt
by ending his control over it, The Doctor convinced the Maskmasters
to turn back time and undo their interference in Earth’s history,
the Maskmasters promising that they would never again carry out such
experiments. The Doctor and Dodo departed as the world was erased,
Dodo never revealing to The Doctor that she had been infected with
Minski’s virus before her departure; without Minski to activate
it, it would remain dormant within her, and she would thus always
have something to remember that world inside her. |
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