A Chinese man was a member of the Tong of the Black Scorpion in London.
In 1889, he and other members of the Tong were tasked with disposing of Joseph Buller's body, but were seen by the Fourth Doctor and Leela and fighting ensued. The gang were winning when a police whistle scared them away. Leela managed to detain this particular member of the group after the Doctor tripped him. He was then taken into custody by the police.
He was taken to a nearby police station and was unsuccessfully questioned by the Doctor. Sergant Kyle later called in Li H'sen Chang to question him. While no one was looking, Chang slipped him a capsule of scorpion venom. He swallowed it, and was killed almost instantly, thus preventing him from talking. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
Behind the scenes[]
In no way, shape or form is this character's in-universe name actually "coolie". It is the entire narrative point of his character that not even his name was revealed before he killed himself with poison. However, this distasteful and blatantly racist term was given in the credits, and so we still retain that in the title so that the article can be easily found from the search box.
