Henry Avery

Captain Henry Avery was a naval officer in the 1690s who became a pirate. He left his wife and son Toby behind in England. His wife died in his absence.

Biography
In 1699, three years after his departure from home, Captain Avery was returning from an successful plundering of Mughal treasure. Midjourney his ship, Fancy, encountered a Siren who began taking the crew away after marking them with a black spot. Unknown to him, his son had stowed away on the ship. His son had fallen ill with Typhoid fever (incurable in the 1690s) and had been marked by the siren but not yet taken due to his hiding place onboard.

The Eleventh Doctor came aboard Fancy during this crisis and investigated the Siren. He identified Avery's treasure as allowing the Siren to attack and told Avery it must be thrown overboard. Avery did so, but kept one crown. It allowed the Siren to take his son. He realised how possessed he was by greed and was forced to reassess what he valued.

Eventually the Doctor realised that the Siren was in fact the automated doctor of an alien spacecraft, rather than a demon. Avery let himself be taken to her hospital in order to care for his son and crew.

The Doctor saw it was important to send the ship back into space, and Toby would soon die of his fever if he left the ship. Avery decided to stay with Toby. He, with his crew from Fancy and son, flew the spaceship away from Earth towards the Dog Star. (DW: The Curse of the Black Spot)

Prior to this, Avery hid his treasure in the crypt of a church outside a small Cornish village. Captain Samuel Pike led his men in a search for the treasure. (DW: The Smugglers)

Some time later, the Doctor recruited Avery to help him with an attack on the asteroid of Demons Run to rescue Amy Pond. Avery, Toby, and his crew boarded the ship of Madame Kovarian during the attack and subdued its crew, preventing her escape. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)

Personality
Initially an honourable man, Henry Avery was corrupted by his greed for wealth and power. He became a pirate, abandoning his wife and son. His wife died while Henry was at sea and his son stowed away on his ship. Henry was furious with Toby for stowing away, saying that his mother would be worried. When Toby revealed that she was dead, Henry felt remorse and told his son that he was sorry. Despite his anger with Toby, Henry clearly cared for his son and decided to stay with him on board the Siren's host ship when he discovered that without the Siren, Toby would die.

Henry was a superstitious man, initially believing that the Siren was a demon. He was suspicious of the Doctor and his companions when they first met and didn't like the Doctor acting as though he was charge. He aimed his pistol at the Doctor and reminded him who was Captain several times, but in the end, he grew to trust and respect him. Henry was a loyal ally to the Time Lord and helped him rescue Amy Pond from Demons Run.

Behind the scenes

 * There is some dispute about the spelling of the historical Avery's last name. Some records have it as Every or Avary, Since no episode of Doctor Who actually shows us his name written within the narrative, all three spellings remain possible in the DWU. Nevertheless, the usage of Avery on this wiki is prejudiced by the spelling employed by the end credits to The Curse of the Black Spot and the script for The Smugglers.
 * Interestingly, the real Henry Avery actually disappeared sometime after 1696 which is three years before this episode is set.