Kamelion

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Doctor Who character

Kamelion
Affiliated with	Fifth Doctor
Race	Android
Home planet	Xeriphas
Home era	Unspecified
First appearance	The King's Demons
Last appearance	Planet of Fire The Caves of Androzani (cameo)
Portrayed by	Gerald Flood (voice)

Kamelion is a fictional character from the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A shape-changing android voiced by Gerald Flood in its default form, it is a companion of the Fifth Doctor and appears (properly, see below) in the programme in two serials between 1983 and 1984.

1 Character biography
2 Behind the scenes
3 Other appearances
4 Television serials

[edit] Character biography

When first encountered by the Doctor in The King's Demons, Kamelion is a tool of the renegade Time Lord known as the Master. At the conclusion of the Master's previous encounter with the Doctor, he was trapped on the planet Xeriphas. When the Master returns, he has Kamelion with him, calling it a souvenir he had picked up from there. Although Kamelion is sentient to a degree, it is also extremely weak-willed, and therefore open to manipulation by any strong personalities around it. The Doctor frees Kamelion from the Master's grip, and it joins the Doctor in the TARDIS. Here it presumably spends all the intervening time between its two full appearances, out of sight and mind – notably no reference is even made to the character on-screen otherwise.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Kamelion eventually falls under the Master's influence again in the serial Planet of Fire. Kamelion finally begs the Doctor to destroy it, and the Doctor reluctantly honours that request. The Kamelion robot's last appearance is as one of the images of his companions that comes to the Fifth Doctor during his regeneration scene in The Caves of Androzani.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Behind the scenes

When Kamelion changed shape, it was played by the actor whose character's form it took. However, when in its default form, it was a true computer-controlled robot prop. The reason why the Kamelion robot was used fully only in two serials was that it was very difficult for the Doctor Who production team to control. It malfunctioned frequently, and things were only made worse when its inventor died in a boating accident without leaving behind the knowledge of the complex codes that controlled it. A third appearance by the character in the serial The Awakening, to bridge the gap and remind viewers of his existence 'hiding' within the TARDIS, was cut for timing reasons and so never broadcast. Thought lost forever, this scene was eventually recovered on a video copy of an early edit of The Awakening episode one, in the personal archive of the late Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner. Presented to the Doctor Who Restoration Team, it is a likely inclusion on a DVD release of this story, possibly even reinserted into the programme.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Other appearances

Kamelion is also featured in the spin-off novels The Crystal Bucephalus by Craig Hinton, Imperial Moon and The Ultimate Treasure both by Christopher Bulis. In The Crystal Bucephalus its absence from the televised stories is here explained by saying that it remains secreted deep in the TARDIS for fear of being taken over by a stronger personality and used against the Doctor. In The Ultimate Treasure, it is stated that Kamelion is the product of a race known as the Gelsandorans. Some of Kamelion's personality survives due to interfacing with the TARDIS, and the Gelsandorans give it a new body only for it to sacrifice itself to save the Doctor and Peri.

Kamelion also features in several short stories set in the Doctor Who universe, notably "One Perfect Twilight" by Craig Hinton (Perfect Timing), where the Doctor realises that obedience and slavery are built into Kamelion's makeup, and "The Reproductive Cycle" by Matthew Griffiths (Short Trips: Life Sciences). In the latter story, the "child" of Kamelion and the TARDIS, who becomes a double of Peri, takes her place on Earth while the real Peri travels with the Doctor.

As with all spinoff media, the canonicity of these remains unclear.