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| Sil |
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 Name: Sil
Format:
Television and Book
Time of Origin: Future, the planet
of Thoros-Beta, exact time of origin unspecified.
Appearances: "Vengeance
on Varos", "Mission to Magnus" and "Trial
of a Time Lord: Mindwarp".
Doctors: Sixth
Doctor
Companions: Peri Brown
History: A native of the planet Thoros-Beta, Sil
is generally regarded as one of the most unpleasant creatures ever
encountered by The Doctor, one of the more prominent reasons for
this reputation being his repulsive appearance, resembling as he
did a kind of green worm with squat arms, an ugly face and a set
of frilly scales on the top of his head. A glitch in his translator
made him even more disturbing, but this was never corrected because
nobody ever told him about it (Why the TARDIS’s translation
abilities didn’t compensate for the error is unknown; possibly
the language translator doesn’t work if the language spoken
is already being translated by something else).
When
Sil initially appeared in the series, he was the representative of
the Galatron Mining Corporation present on the planet Varos to extract
concessions from the current Governor. Unbeknownst to the Varosians,
the mineral Zeiton-7, one of their few natural resources, was not,
as they thought, practically worthless, but was in fact extremely
rare, and highly valuable to time travelers as a power source for
their machines. Devoid of morality and determined to get the cheapest
possible price for the zeiton ore, Sil greatly enjoyed the various
tortures that were carried out for the enjoyment of the population
of the planet to prevent them from doing anything about their situation,
including a voting system where the governor was slowly tortured
to death every time he received a vote against him.
Eventually, Sil’s plans to get the ore
were thwarted when the Sixth
Doctor and Peri, seeking Zeiton-7 to refuel
the TARDIS, arrived on Varos in the middle of the ‘maze’ where
condemned prisoners were sent. Allying themselves with other prisoners
- on the basis that they were the only people there not trying to kill
them, The Doctor and Peri tried to escape the maze, but Peri was captured
after she was nearly mutated into a bird-like creature by one of the
traps. Fortunately, Sil’s plans to take control of Varos by killing
the Governor with the next vote were thwarted when the guard controlling
the torture machine had a change of heart, and the discovery of a new
supply of Zeiton-7 prompted the company Sil worked for to order him to
purchase the ore at any price. As thanks for his aid, The Doctor was
given the ore he sought and departed.
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Mission to Magnus
(Philip Martin) |
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During
their next encounter with Sil, The Doctor was forced to not only
confront his fear of a childhood bully from the Time Lord academy
- a renegade Gallifreyian known as Anzor - but also a potentially
lethal alliance between Sil and the Ice Warriors. At this point,
the rulers of the planet Magnus Eplison - a planet divided between
the male Salvakans and female Magnii - on advice from Sil, sought
the aid of a Time Lord to stop an alien spacecraft bombarding their
planet with lethal radiation (Their humiliation of Aznor helped The Doctor overcome his childhood fear), but The Doctor tricked Anzor
into entering his TARDIS after setting it on a fixed course for the
dawn of creation. Attempting to acquire the resources to mass produce
time machines, Sil managed to break into the TARDIS with the planet’s
ruler, but accidentally shifted himself a few hours into the future,
where they witnessed a planet that had been all but destroyed.
Exploring the ice tunnels beneath the palace, The Doctor
and Peri discovered the Ice Warriors that Sil had allied himself
with, as well as learning their plan; by setting off several nuclear
devices in sequence, the Ice Warriors pushed the planet into a more
distant orbit, making it far colder and a perfect habitat for the
Ice Warriors. Sil had intended to profit from the disaster by selling
cold-weather items such as heaters and clothing to the population
in the aftermath, but when the Ice Warriors betrayed him, Sil revealed
the existence of a second series of nuclear devices, allowing The Doctor to shove the planet back into its proper orbit. The Doctor
and Peri departed, leaving Sil to get rich selling matrimonial and
baby goods.
Whether this attempt at ‘reformation’ - if
it could be considered that; just because Sil wasn’t actively
hurting anyone any more didn’t mean he wasn’t still a
merciless monster - was a lie or simply didn’t take, the next
time Sil met The Doctor and Peri, he was as ruthless as ever, selling
arms to the planet of Thoros-Beta while overseeing his master Kiv’s
attempt to transfer his brain into a new body, his old head being
too small for his ever-growing brain. After being exposed to one
of the devices in Sil’s laboratory, The Doctor’s personality
was altered, making him callous and self-centered, resulting in him
betraying the Thoros-Alphan rebels who were attempting to overthrow
the Mentors. Although he eventually snapped out of it, The Doctor
was apparently too late to save Peri from being used as Kiv’s
new host; he was pulled out of time by the Time Lords for his newest ‘trial’ (Overseen
by his own dark future incarnation, The Valeyard), leaving Peri/Kiv,
Sil, and Crozier - the scientist who had overseen the procedure -
to be killed by an enraged King Yrcanos, the Alphan leader who had
fallen in love with Peri.
(It should be noted that the above events are uncertain,
given that The Valeyard was tampering with the evidence to try and
achieve his desired outcome for the trial; as was later revealed
in "Bad
Therapy", Peri survived Kiv’s attempt to
possess her, but the final fates of Sil, Kiv and Crozier are unclear,
particularly since Sil’s survival would have had no effect
on the ‘threat to evolution’ the Time Lords believed
the transference process would result in). |
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