Henry Avery

Captain Henry Avery was a naval officer in the 1690s who eventually became a pirate seeking to increase his wealth. He had done so, leaving his wife and son Toby behind in England, his wife dying in his absence. He later toke over an alien spaceship and piloted it through the universe to broaden his horizens and send time with his son.

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 the Siren who began taking the crew away after marking them with a black spot. Unknown to him at first, 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. He did so but secretly kept one crown, which later allowed the Siren to take his son. This revealed how possessed he was by greed and forced him to reassess what he valued.

Eventually the Doctor realised that the Siren was in fact an automated doctor of an alien spacecraft, rather than a demon. Avery eventually let himself be taken to her hospital in order to care for his son and crew. As his son would surely die upon his return to England, he chose to stay with him in the alien ship.

As the Doctor saw it as 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 in order to rescue Amy Pond. Avery, Toby, and his crew managed to board the ship of Madame Kovarian during the attack and subdue its crew, preventing her from escaping. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)

Personality
Initially an honourable man, Henry Avery became corrupted by his greed for wealth and power. He became a pirate, abandoning his wife and son in the process. His wife died while Henry was at sea and his son stowed away on his ship. Henry was initially furious with Toby for stowing away, saying that his mother would be worried. When Toby revealed that his mother was dead, Henry felt remorse and told his son that he was sorry. Despite his anger towards 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 fact that the Doctor acted 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.

INtelligence
Dispite coming from a time of hyperative superstitions, Captain Avery could easily grasp the concerpts of technolgy thousands of years ahead of what he knew. Such an example is that he figured out that the complex words the Doctor used were basically describing similar sailing terms such as a telescope, rudder, steering wheel, and sails. He later became captain of the alien ship and easily piloted it to Sirius without much trouble, indicating he learned quickly of higher technology.

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 out 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. His absence is explained in this episode because of being stranded on his boat by the Siren.