The Captain


 * This article is about the feared space captain known only as The Captain. For other captains, see Captain

The Captain was a feared space pirate who ruled the planet Zanak, assisted by his nurse and Mr Fibuli. He also had a pet robot parrot, Polyphase Avatron.

Biography
The Captain commanded the Vantarialis until he crash-landed on Zanak, where he was rebuilt as a cyborg. The Captain designed the transmat engines which allowed Zanak to materialise around other planets and plunder their mineral wealth. He kept the super-compressed remains of those planets in his trophy room. The Captain's nurse was actually a projection of Zanak's former queen, Xanxia, who controlled the Captain and used the energy from the planets to become immortal. After Calufrax was plundered, the Fourth Doctor investigated. With the aid of the Mentiads, he fought the Captain, preventing him from attacking his next target: Earth. Xanxia killed the Captain when he turned against her. (TV: The Pirate Planet)

Legacy
The Captain was among the foes who the Fourth Doctor saw call out to him in his mind shortly before his fall from the Pharos Project radio telescope, which resulted in his regeneration to his next incarnation. (TV: Logopolis)

Personality
The Captain was a ruthless space pirate who liked killing. The Captain was given to bluster and bombast, and frequently swore by aspects of the sky demon, also swearing by the "flaming moons of Heretes" or the "horns of the prophet Balag". However, upon learning that the Captain was secretly plotting to free himself from the control of Xanxia, the Doctor theorised that the Captain's over-the-top bluster was really just an act, meant to dupe Xanxia into thinking he was a bombastic fool who posed no threat to her. The Doctor also noted that the Captain was actually a very clever man in addition to being dangerous.

Behind the scenes
Deleted material from The Pirate Planet identified the Captain as the last survivor of the pirate fleets of Agran, which used to ransack the western sector of the galaxy until they were wiped out in the Dordellis Wars. Other cuts included an explanation of the Captain's frequent oaths to the sky demon and its constituent parts: the people of Agran believed that their souls were taken after death by the sky demon, a mythical devil. (INFO: The Pirate Planet)