Eldrad

Eldrad was a Kastrian who developed many scientific marvels for his people. His dreams of galactic conquest led him to betray his kin and he was sentenced to death and obliterated.

Scientific work
In order to protect Kastria, homeworld of the Kastrians, from solar winds, Eldrad developed spatial barriers that allowed life to exist on the planet's surface and revitalised the planets earth and air. He developed a "crystalline silicon form" for the physcial needs of the Kastrians.

Eldrad designed the regenerator chamber - a device that used irradiation to revitalise - and programmed it to his own ends, ensuring it could never be used to cause him harm. He produced an acid that neutralised the molecular bond of Kastrians when they were imbued with it.

A ring was also created by Eldrad which contained a crystal with his genetic code. This allowed him to reconstitute his physical form from any radioactive material. He called it his "key to eternity".

Treachery
Eldrad dreamed of galactic conquest, with the Kastrian race seizing all the planets in range of their spacecraft. However, King Rokon opposed him in this. Angered by this denial, Eldrad destroyed the barriers, allowing the solar winds to ravage the surface of Kastria.

For his crime, Eldrad was sentenced to death and place in an obliteration module that was launched into space. In order to ensure its occupant was completely destroyed, it had to be activated twenty-five spans from Kastria. However, as there was a risk the solar winds would leave Outer Dome Six with no control over the craft, it was detonated prematurely - at nineteen spans. The hand of Eldrad survived and came to Earth in the Jurassic period.

Revival
One hundred and fifty million years later, in the late 20th century, blasting work at a quarry in England brought a stratum to the surface composed of blackstone dolomite - Jurassic limestone. The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith were covered by the residue of the blast. Buried beneath, rock Sarah reached out to a hand she believed to be the Doctor's, but found it to be stone - the hand of Eldrad.

Sarah was the first person the hand had come into contact with since its arrival on Earth and she fell under the influence of Eldrad, hearing his commands in her mind. Waking in hospital, she used the ring of Eldrad to render Doctor Carter unconscious and took the hand. When he woke, he too was hearing Eldrad's commands.

Sarah travelled to Nunton Experimental Complex where she took the hand into the reactor room. Eldrad began absorbing radiation and the hand began to move. Carter, under the Kastrian's influence, attempted to stop the Doctor from interfering and fell to his death in doing so.

The Doctor reacted Sarah and took her away from both the hand and the ring. Driscoll, a worker at the complex, found the jewel and so became the new puppet of Eldrad, Sarah no longer being under his control. Driscoll took the hand into the reactor core where Eldrad regained a full humanoid form. It was based on Sarah - the first being it hand come into contact with - in order to appear familar, and so was female. The military launched missiles at the complex, but they were absorbed by Eldrad to complete the restoration.

She read the mind of the Doctor to ascertain knowledge - specifically whether or not what he told her about the passage of time was true. Knowing him to be a Time Lord, Eldrad asked to be taken back in time to Kastria, but the Doctor refused on the basis of the Laws of Time. Eldrad told Sarah and the Doctor that a war between two planets had destroyed the barriers of Kastria and she had been discredited and sentenced to death in the wake of this. Professor Watson shot at Eldrad and she pursued him to the control centre and attacked him - intending to kill him - but was persuaded by the Doctor to let him live.

Back to Kastria
Travelling in the Doctor's TARDIS, Eldrad returned to Kastria. The planet was now cold and barren as a result of solar wind activity. While attempting to access the thermal chambers, subterranean dwellings of the Kastrian people, Eldrad triggered a booby trap. It fired a missile at her containing the acid she developed. The traps had been devised by the Kastrians, who were aware of her possible return. Knowing there to be no antidote, Eldrad requested that the Doctor take her underground to the regenerator chamber. The Doctor and Sarah had to carry her most of the way - including over an abyss - and deactivated a further trap on the door of the chamber.

They placed Eldrad in the chamber and the Doctor activated it. Eldrad was restored to his male or, as he called it "true", form. The machine had altered to function s a trap, but Eldrad laughed at this, knowing his own programming prevented it from harming him. Having received a message from Rokon, Eldrad searched the city for the king. He found his body and was angered, feeling he had been cheated of his destiny.

Eldrad decided to used the regenerator to recreate his species from the race bank, but on going there, found it empty. From another recording of Rokon's, he learnt that the Kastrian people had "[chosen] final oblivion" rather than have to face the subterranean existence the destruction of the barriers consigned them to. Furthermore, fearing that Eldrad would use the race banks to "wage eternal war throughout the galaxy" they elected to destroy them.

Earth was seen as an alternative by Eldrad, who hoped to harness the aggressive trait of the human race and have them worship him as a god. The Doctor refused to take him back. Eldrad requested that the Doctor return his ring. The Time Lord threw his magician's stick into the race bank, which Eldrad took to be the jewel, distracting him.

The Doctor and Sarah fled, pursued by Eldrad, who still hoped to be taken to Earth. The time travellers poised themselves next to the abyss they had carried the female Eldrad over and each held an end of the Doctor's scarf. Pulling it taut, Eldrad tripped and fell into the depths. The Doctor tossed the ring down after him. Back in his TARDIS, the Doctor doubted Eldrad was dead, being "very difficult to kill". Of Eldrad's different genders, Sarah said she "quite liked her, but [she] couldn't stand him".

Return
The Doctor was correct in his fears when he met Eldrad in his fifth incarnation. (AUDIO: Eldrad Must Die!)