Shade Vassily

Shade Vassily was a ruler of Katuria and all its dominions, who was later exiled to Earth.

He was of noble birth and ruled Katuria with an iron hand, not shying away from genocide to suppress rebellions in his empire. When it became clear that a revolution will succeed, he was tried by the Imperial Court and sentenced to an exile to a primitive planet. To prevent assassination attempts, the choice of Earth as his exile planet was kept secret and his appearance was surgically changed in order for him to be able to blend in among the humans. Moreover, to prevent his escape from Earth and defend him from potential assassins, he was accompanied by a guard in the form of an AI. As an additional layer of security, a Clockwork Mechanical was programmed to believe that he was Shade Vassily and another Katurian was sent to Earth to accompany him as the guard of Shade Vassily. On Earth these two used the names of Edward Repple and Aske respectively. The two Katurians, the Mechanical and the AI arrived on Earth in the same spaceship, however, the decoys were not aware of the presence of the real Shade Vassily and the AI onboard.

Shade Vassily became the owner of the Imperial Club in London using the alias of Mr Pooter and put the AI on the last floor, occupied by Mr Pooter's apartment. A reputation of a recluse was created for Mr Pooter, whom barely anyone ever saw. Vassily also lodged in the Imperial Club using a different alias, that of Lord Wyse. As Wyse, he was managing the day-to-day business of the club. Repple and Aske also chose lodgings in the Imperial Club.

Lord Wyse could often be seen playing chess.

All rooms of the club were monitored by the AI. In addition, robotic clockwork cats were used to track Vassily's movements. The cats were programmed to kill him if he attempted to escape. However, their programming did not prevent him from preparing for an escape. His plan was to reenergise the spaceship lying under the Thames by ionising the water in the river. The byproduct of this process would be the complete devastation of London. Every Wednesday, Vassily went up the tower of Big Ben to build there an ionising device that could be activated by the Big Ben bells striking the hour.

In 1924, he welcomed the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler to the club.

Melissa Heart managed to find the planet and city of Vassily's exile to revenge her parents and brother killed by him. Mistaking the Doctor for Vassily, she planned an assault on the Imperial Club. Before the assault, the real Vassily slipped away to continue his work at Big Ben. By destroying the AI tasked with Vassily's protection, Melissa opened up a possibility for him to escape.

In his desperate attempt to leave Earth, destroying London in his wake, Vassily used all methods, taking Rose and a ten-year-old boy named Freddie hostage and fighting the Doctor tooth and claw.

The Doctor, Repple, Melissa, Rose and Freddie managed to prevent the mechanism from activation, while the last remaining cat, despite being badly damaged, pushed Vassily from Big Ben to his death. (PROSE:  The Clockwise Man)