Gagan Rassmussen

Gagan Rassmussen was a scientist in the 38th century.

He had developed Morpheus pods on the Le Verrier space station in which which people would lie inside, giving them a month of rest. The build up of sleep dust formed organisms called Sandmen.

After becoming a Sandman himself, Rassmussen plotted to spread the encoded signal the Morpheus pods used to create Sandmen across the solar system. In doing so, he orchestrated a scenario filled with plot twists and a climax on board for dramatic effect "like a story", and send a video of this story with the signal.

In this staged story, Le Verrier went silent, and a rescue team from Triton, as well as the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald, arrived. They went looking for Rassmussen, and he appeared to be killed by a Sandman. After being found again, Rassmussen claimed the Sandmen had made it very clear to him that they were "the future" and "a better life form", that they spoke to him in his mind, and he lied that they had spared him. He appeared to die again when Nagata, the commander of the rescue team, shot him. At the end of Rassmussen's video when Le Verrier's gravity shields were destroyed, he turned into dust. (TV: Sleep No More)