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| The Talons of Weng-Chiang |
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 Name: Magnus Greel (AKA Weng-Chiang)
Format:
Television show
Time of Origin: Originally from the
year 5000 before he travelled back in time to China in 1872; confronted
The Doctor in London in 1889.
Appearances: "The
Talons of Weng-Chiang"
Doctors: Fourth
Doctor
Companions: Leela
History: Magnus Greel is, in some ways, one of
The Doctor’s most interesting adversaries, representing an
intriguing blend of a scientific genius and a total idiot; although
he had access to a great deal of advanced technology that he had
designed himself, most of it operated on flawed scientific principles,
only capable of achieving what Greel had designed it for on a short-term
basis while causing significant long-term damage.
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| The Doctor and Magnus Greel |
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As
the ironically named Minister of Justice of the Supreme Alliance
in the year 5,000 - one of many such Alliances that ruled Earth at
this time - Greel’s atrocities at this time earned him the
title of the "Butcher of Brisbane", with over a hundred
thousand deaths being attributed to him as he sought to perfect his ‘catalytic
extraction chamber’, an attempt to cannibalise the life energies
of others to sustain his own existence. He also considered himself
a driving force in the project in which his nation pioneered time
travel, although this transference process was dependent on a zygma
beam, created based on Fundecker’s discovery of the double-nexus
particle (A revelation known as ‘Fundecker’s Folly’ as
it sent human science up a technological cul-de-sac due to the dangerous
discoveries that were inspired by the particle).
Greel’s
actions began to reach beyond the zygma experiments during the subsequent
war between the Icelandic and Supreme Alliances, Greel arranging
for the collapse of the Icelandic Alliance when Greel had the doll-like
but homicidal cyborg known as the Peking Homunculus - an artificial
construct with the brain of a pig, the swinish instincts leaving
it with a deep-rooted hatred of humanity and an obsession with carnage
- assassinate its commissioner - having been delivered to the commissioner’s
family under the disguise of a toy for his children - an event which
nearly precipitated a sixth World War. Under unspecified circumstances
the truth of the assassination was revealed and the Supreme Alliance
was subsequently defeated in the Battle of Reykjavik (The Doctor
apparently being present at the battle in one of his first four incarnations).
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| Li H'sen Chang with Mr Sin |
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With no other way to save himself, Greel used
a time travel process utilizing a time cabinet transmitted along a zygma
beam to travel back in time with the Peking Homunculus. Arriving in China
in 1872, Greel was discovered by a local peasant, Li H'sen Chang, who
mistook him for the legendary Chinese God Weng-Chiang due to the manner
of his arrival. However, the passage through time had caused great damage
to Greel's DNA, disrupting his metabolism and causing his cells to decay
- comparable to a water-bag with a hole in it, his cellular stability ‘leaking’ and
becoming increasingly unstable - leaving him hideously deformed and forcing
him to wear a mask and concealing clothes to hide his true form. Although
Chang was able to keep Greel hidden from the soldiers of the Tung Chui,
the Time Cabinet was taken by members of the Chinese Imperial Court while
he was hidden, leaving Greel trapped in this time.
In order to find the Cabinet, Greel continued to support
the illusion of himself as Weng-Chiang to win the allegiance of the
Tong of the Black Scorpion, also using unspecified scientific research
to grant Chang mysterious hypnotic powers that would help him enforce
his will on their followers in the Tong. With Chang posing as a conjurer
and the Homunculus as Mr Sin, a ventriloquist's dummy, the group eventually
found themselves in London, Greel using the Tong to search for his Time
Cabinet after tracking it to the city. While Greel lived in fear of
Time Agents from his era tracking him to the past, hiding in the sewers
beneath the theatre where Chang performed - even using his equipment
to enlarge the local rats to act as ‘guards’ - Chang abducted
young women for him so that he might use their life energy to restore
himself using the catalytic extraction chamber to stabilise his own
metabolism, a method which was inherently flawed and only accelerated
the damage to Greel’s cells.
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| Gordon Jago and Professor
Litefoot |
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This status quo continued until the Fourth
Doctor and
Leela arrived in London - The Doctor attempting to show Leela how her
ancestors entertained themselves in the past - subsequently witnessing
members of the Tong disposing of the body of Mr Sin’s latest victim.
Aided by Professor Litefoot - the pathologist who examined the victim’s
corpse, whose father had been given the Time Cabinet in 1873 as a gift
for his military service - and Henry Gordon Jago - the manager of the
theatre where Chang performed -, The Doctor and Leela investigated the
deaths, The Doctor discovering ‘Weng-Chiang’ in the theatre
and Leela later infiltrating his base by switching places with a hypnotised
girl Chang had recently kidnapped for Greel. Although Leela managed
to escape Greel’s underground base, Greel subsequently abandoned
the location, Chang being killed by one of Greel’s giant rats
when he tried to flee himself.
Having discovered the Cabinet in Litefoot’s house,
The Doctor swiftly realised that he was dealing with the Peking Homunculus,
although he eventually had to allow himself to be captured - having
stolen the Time Cabinet’s key to prevent Greel from escaping as
the re-ignition of the Zygma beam could vaporise London - in order to
specifically identify the individual who had brought Sin to the past.
In the subsequent confrontation, Greel concluded that The Doctor was
a Time Agent from his era due to The Doctor’s knowledge of the
events that led to his ‘exile’ to the past, believing that
The Doctor’s presence proved that the zygma experiments had succeeded,
but The Doctor openly derided Greel’s technology, dismissing the
extraction chamber as simply cannibalism that saved Greel from having ‘to
chew the grisly bits’ and bluntly informing him that the zygma
experiments were a disaster. Denying The Doctor’s claims, Greel
had The Doctor, Jago and Litefoot locked up in a cell, intending to
use the key to take the time cabinet back to his own time and receive
proper treatment after interrogating The Doctor for further information
about the experiments.
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| Magnus Greel |
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However, Greel’s plan went wrong when The Doctor
and his allies escaped their cell, Greel then finding himself unable
to properly control Sin - currently sitting in a dragon statue with
lasers in its eyes that Greel had designed as a weapon - as the android’s
psychotic tendencies had become too powerful. Driven solely by its own
bloodlust, Sin turned against Greel’s followers while The Doctor,
Leela, Litefoot and Jago hid behind a table, leaving Greel distracted
long enough for Leela to destroy the laser weapon Sin was using. As
Greel attempted to shoot Leela, The Doctor tackled him and disposed
of the gun, the fight ending as The Doctor shoved Greel into his own
extraction chamber, resulting in fatal cellular collapse as the proteins
he required were extracted from his body all at once, his entire body
falling apart. Having disabled Sin by removing the android’s control
circuit, subsequently smashing the key to the Time Cabinet, The Doctor
and Leela departed, certain that Greel’s zygma experiments had
been ended once and for all.
The Doctor later dealt with the remnants of Greel’s
legacy when he found himself pitted against Li H’sen Chang’s
daughter Hsien-Ko ("The
Shadow of Weng-Chiang") - rendered
immortal but sterile due to her father’s exposure to zygma energy
before her conception - who sought to draw Greel’s time cabinet
to the present to punish him for what he had done to her father,
unaware of the implications of the temporal paradox that would
result if she
succeeded in preventing Greel from reaching the past. Although
her plan nearly succeeded at the last minute, The Doctor was
able to prevent
the Time Cabinet from being diverted from its original course
by materialising theTARDIS in
the location where the cabinet was to arrive, essentially ‘shoving’ the
cabinet back into the Time Vortex to continue on its path to
1872, allowing history to unfold as it should. |
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