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{{Update|Information from the ''[[Dalek (novelisation)|Dalek]]'' novelisation and his police bulletin in ''[[The Doctor: His Lives and Times]]'' should be added.}} | |||
{{Infobox Individual | {{Infobox Individual | ||
|image = Henryvanstatten.jpg | |||
|image= Henryvanstatten.jpg | |alias = | ||
|alias= | |species = Human | ||
|species=Human | |birth date = Circa [[1961]] | ||
|origin=[[United States of | |origin = [[United States]] | ||
|appearances= [[ | |father = Edward Van Statten | ||
|grandchild = Geneva Van Statten | |||
|affiliation = Geocomtex | |||
|job = CEO | |||
|job2 = category:Collectors of alien artefacts{{!}}Collector | |||
|first = Dalek (TV story) | |||
|appearances = {{il|[[PROSE]]: ''[[Henry Van Statten (short story)|Henry Van Statten]]''|[[TV]]: ''[[The Runaway Bride (TV story)|The Runaway Bride]]''|[[PROSE]]: ''[[The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)|The Time Traveller's Almanac]]''|[[PROSE]]: ''[[Dalek (novelisation)|Dalek]]''}} | |||
|actor = Corey Johnson | |||
}}{{ImageLink}} | |||
'''Henry van Statten''' (sometimes misspelt as "'''VanStatten'''" ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Henry Van Statten (short story)}}, {{cs|Support (feature)}}) (born circa 1961{{note|Van Statten decided to buy the Dalek when he was 45, in 2006.}}) was an [[America]]n multi-[[billionaire]] who had a vested interest in the collection of alien technology — stemming from a childhood fascination of the universe — to reverse engineer into products sold by the corporation [[Geocomtex]], of which he was [[CEO]]. He owned the [[Internet]] by [[2012]] and, as one of the richest men in the [[world]], gained enough influence to sway the course of the next [[President of the United States|presidential]] elections. | |||
He was part of the [[Van Statten family]]. | |||
== Biography == | == Biography == | ||
=== Early life === | |||
[[File:Van Statten young.jpg|thumb|left|Henry Van Statten by [[2006]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Henry Van Statten (short story)|Henry Van Statten]]'')]] | |||
Van Statten was the son of [[Edward Van Statten]], the billionaire owner of the [[Van Statten Corporation]], a wealthy business dealing in [[oil]] and [[armament]]s during the later [[20th century]]. Henry felt isolated from his father, who was endlessly away on business trips throughout most of his childhood while Henry was left to live in isolation in [[Housing complex (Dalek)|a housing complex]] within the [[Utah]] desert. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Dalek (novelisation)}}) Henry grew up watching ''[[Star Wars]]''. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Henry Van Statten (short story)}}) Henry found comfort in [[Otto von Donitz]], one of Edward's personal assistants charged with educating and caring for Henry in his father's absence. On his seventh birthday, Otto gifted Henry a [[telescope]], claiming his father bought it him as a [[gift]] to look out at the [[star]]s and aspire to one day reach them, and demonstrate [[ambition]]. However, when Edward returned home and learned Otto had gifted Henry the telescope, Edward fired Otto and had two henchmen destroy the telescope [[6 (number)|six]] [[week]]s later. | |||
Embittered by his father's action, when Edward neared death and gifted Henry inherited one million dollars from his father on his fifteenth birthday,{{what?}} he used the knowledge of [[Keynesian]] and [[Friedmanite]] [[economic model]]s Otto taught him to invest the money into the [[telecommunication]]s business and the [[internet]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Dalek (novelisation)}}) At this point, in the [[dotcom]] boom of [[1995]]-[[2001]], Van Statten started making his billions. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)|chaptnum=3|chaptname=Everything Changes|page=146}}) Henry's investment into telecommunications was a decision which infuriated his father, who wanted the money to be cycled back into arms dealing. Henry refused and insisted his father sign the Van Statten Corporation to him rather than his lawyers on the assurance his skill in investing would ensure his father's name survived beyond him. Reluctantly, Edward conceded and Henry took over the company. | |||
When Edward eventually died from his illness, Henry had all his workers mourn the man's death for [[10 (number)|ten]] [[minute]]s before firing them all and redesigning the entire corporation to achieve his childhood dream of exploring the concept of space and alien life, ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Dalek (novelisation)}}) to be an [[astronaut]] who would befriend an alien on [[Mars]], as he wistfully later put it. The first piece of otherworldly material acquired by Van Statten was [[moondust]], which he found at an [[ammo fair]]. While this had been easy for him, he found it to be "ultimate" to have alien [[grit]] run through his hands. He then began collecting actual alien artefacts, which was more of a challenge. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Henry Van Statten (short story)}}) | |||
[[Geocomtex]] was founded in [[1999]] to combat the [[Y2K bug]], ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Products (feature)}}) and as it began to "take off" in the years following, the large sums of money earned fuelled Van Statten's [[addiction]] to purchasing alien "[[leftover]]s and [[curio]]s" from [[the Gray Market]], an underground [[trading]] scene. He also knew how to differentiate real alien objects from the [[fake]]s, which were "easy pickings" in the Market. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Henry Van Statten (short story)}}) Winning these artefacts at [[auction]], he reverse engineered them to create "new" technologies which he exploited commercially. ([[TV]]: {{cs|Dalek (TV story)}}) Some of the objects he acquired included: [[material (Henry Van Statten)|an unidentifiable material]]; [[rock (Henry Van Statten)|a curious rock]] around the size of a [[Jolly Rancher]] that took the combined force of [[3 (number)|three]] [[people]] to lift; ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Henry Van Statten (short story)}}) and technology salvaged from the [[Roswell crash]] which he used to create [[broadband]]. He kept these artefacts in a private collection, inside a bunker called [[The Vault (Dalek)|the Vault]] more than fifty floors below ground in [[Utah]] near [[Salt Lake City]]. Henry also now owned the [[Internet]], and influenced American elections to favour his desires. ([[TV]]: {{cs|Dalek (TV story)}}) | |||
Although in the early few years of the [[21st century|new millennium]] Van Statten did not publicly discuss his belief that aliens had visited Earth, ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)|chaptnum=3|chaptname=Everything Changes|page=146}}) he soon became known for his interest in aliens. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Henry Van Statten (short story)}}, {{cs|The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)|chaptnum=3|chaptname=Everything Changes|page=146}}) After the [[Slitheen family|Slitheen]]'s attempt to [[London UFO crash|plunge Earth into a nuclear war]] ([[TV]]: {{cs|Aliens of London (TV story)}}, {{cs|World War Three (TV story)}}) Van Statten allowed himself to be interviewed by conspiracy theorist [[Mickey Smith|Mickey]], owner of the website [[Who is Doctor Who?]], about his thoughts on aliens; he talked about the "event" that happened just the week prior and his [[ambition]] to collect alien [[artefact]]s, which he admitted was fuelled by his childhood dreams. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Henry Van Statten (short story)}}) | |||
[[ | |||
Van Statten replaced [[Henry Van Statten's publicist|his publicist]] every [[month]], as answered by the [[Geocomtex website]] to any question about if their boss was "a complete [[nutjob|nut]]" on [[GEOCOMTEX - Support Site & FAQS|their FAQs page]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Support (feature)}}) | |||
== | === Acquiring the Metaltron === | ||
According to most accounts, Van Statten purchased the Dalek nicknamed "[[Metaltron]]" in an [[auction]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Object Auction (short story)}}, {{cs|The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)|chaptnum=3|chaptname=Everything Changes|page=148}}, {{cs|The Secret Lives of Monsters (short story)|chaptnum=2|chaptname=The Daleks|page=53}}, etc.) However, according to another, Van Statten directly purchased it from [[Hiram Duchesne|its owner]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Dalek (novelisation)}}) | |||
Prior to [[28 July]] [[2006]] ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Unexploded WWII Bomb Warnings (short story)}}) or in [[August]] 2006, ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)|chaptnum=3|chaptname=Everything Changes|page=148}}) [[UNIT United Kingdom|UNIT]] noticed that something called "the Object" was sold at an [[auction]], and, while UNIT couldn't afford the Object at the auction, they tried to identify the seller and buyer; ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Object Auction (short story)}}) the buyer was van Statten, who was invited to the auction, which had a [[$]][[1000000 (number)|1000000]] entry [[fee]]; according to this account, the Object was already called "the Metaltron". ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Secret Lives of Monsters (short story)|chaptnum=2|chaptname=The Daleks|page=53}}) UNIT had been tracking the Dalek for years, but they lost track of it in Utah. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Object Auction (short story)}}, [[AUDIO]]: {{cs|The Dalek Transaction (audio story)}}) | |||
On his forty-fifth birthday, Henry decided he wanted to finally purchase a living alien creature rather than parts of now deceased ones. Using his influence, he learned one such creature was in the hands of a private collector [[Hiram Duchesne]], a middle-aged businessman in the ice cream industry. Henry offered the man twenty-five million dollars for the creature, but Duchesne refused. Angered, Henry bought out the man's company and left him bankrupt but Duchesne still refused to sell despite needing the money. Duchesne was ill with [[cancer]] and, having heard rumours Henry's scientists had used alien technology to create a cure, he finally agreed to sell the creature to Henry. By now Henry was fifty-three years old. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Dalek (novelisation)}}) | |||
Regardless of ''how'' he purchased the Dalek, afterwards, [[Sven (Sven and the Scarf)|Sven]] tidied [[Van Statten Collection|the museum]] in preparation of van Statten's purchase. ([[WC]]: {{cs|Sven and the Scarf (webcast)}}) Van Statten tried to make the Metaltron talk through torture, but all it did was scream. ([[TV]]: {{cs|Dalek (TV story)}}) | |||
In [[2007]], while the [[Tenth Doctor]] was researching [[H.C. Clements]], several websites relating to van Statten were seen, including his [[GEOCOMTEX website]] and his interview on the [[Defending the Earth!]] website. ([[TV]]: {{cs|The Runaway Bride (TV story)}}) | |||
Henry's immoral influence on the world stage using his wealth had concerned personnel working within the FBI. The organisation implanted Diana Goddard and Owen Bywater into Henry's security personnel within the Vault to spy on him. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Dalek (novelisation)|Dalek]]'') | |||
===Downfall=== | |||
[[File:Annual psychopath meeting.jpg|thumb|The [[Dalek]] threatens van Statten. ([[TV]]: ''[[Dalek (TV story)|Dalek]]'')]] | |||
In 2012, on Van Statten's [[birthday]], the [[Ninth Doctor]] and [[Rose Tyler]] arrived in the Vault in response to a distress signal, unaware that the signal came from a Dalek. They were quickly captured by van Statten's guards. At this time, [[Diana Goddard]], van Statten's personal assistant, and [[Adam Mitchell]], a scientist, worked for him. Learning the Doctor was alien, van Statten examined his [[Gallifreyan physiology]]. He had plans to make use of his [[binary vascular system]] in a marketing venture, branding it as his own creation through a patent. When the Dalek freed itself, he gave the Doctor free rein to deal with it. By the time events came to a conclusion, two hundred Geocomtex personnel had died and the Dalek had self-destructed. Goddard took charge at this point and van Statten got a taste of his own medicine: she ordered van Statten to be taken away, mind-wiped and dumped on the streets, "somewhere beginning with an 'S'," due to him causing the death of 200 personnel. ([[TV]]: ''[[Dalek (TV story)|Dalek]]'') According to another account, however, he willingly wiped his own memory, mentally regressing himself to an infant, after being shown a nightmarish vision of brutally killing everyone he had ever harmed. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Dalek (novelisation)|Dalek]]'') | |||
To the public, Statten mysteriously disappeared. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Whoniverse (novel)|The Whoniverse]]'') At 1:55[[AM]] on [[2 May]], [[Sacramento Police Department|police]] [[police officer|officers]] were called out to [[Riverside Boulevard]] in [[Greenhaven]], as Van Statten, now just a [[vagrant]], had caused a disturbance. When the police tried to caution him, Van Statten was uncooperative and kept repeatedly saying "don't you know who I am?" A police [[bulletin]], submitted by [[CSO]] [[Morris (Mickey's Blog)|Morris]] and approved by [[Sergeant|Sgt]]. [[J. Barnes]], was released on [[5 May]] asking the [[public]] if they knew the [[identity]] or [[origin]] of Van Statten. One person noted the vagrant's resemblance to Van Statten, which another flatly denied. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Mickey's Blog (short story)|page=172}}) | |||
=== Legacy === | |||
Van Statten had a granddaughter, [[Geneva Van Statten]], who would later bring success once more to the family name. She fought the [[Sixth Doctor]] on several occasions. ([[GAME]]: {{cs|The Enemies of Time (game)}}) | |||
==Personality== | |||
Intelligent, arrogant and selfish, van Statten treated his employees as though they were expendable human livestock, to the point of mind-wiping them when they left his employ so they could not betray his secrets. He also displayed no concern for their safety and even when there was a deadly Dalek on the loose, he ordered them not to cause any damage to it and was willing to let them die just to keep the Dalek in one piece. Eventually he decided to help the Doctor stop the Dalek but only did so to protect himself, telling the Doctor that the only reason he was helping was because he didn't want to get killed. Van Statten had a wry, dark sense of humour and treated other humans, and aliens especially, as things he could use to amuse himself or turn to his advantage. The Doctor mentioned [[Davros]], the Dalek creator, to him and secretly compared them, calling Davros "a genius, a man who was king of his own little world" and telling van Statten, "You'd like him". However van Statten was not entirely heartless and apologised to the Doctor when they thought that Rose Tyler had been killed. He claimed that he wanted to touch the stars, unaware of how detrimental his treatment of alien life and artefacts had really been so far. ([[TV]]: ''[[Dalek (TV story)|Dalek]]'') | |||
==Behind the scenes == | |||
* The name "Van Statten" was previously used by [[Russell T Davies]] for the owner of a [[Swansea]] real estate company in ''[[Mine All Mine (series)|Mine All Mine]]''. | |||
*In an early draft script for ''Dalek'', van Statten's character was called "Will Fences", as a parody of Bill Gates. | |||
*According to [[Russell T Davies]]'s ''[[Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale|The Writer's Tale]]'', the original script for ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'' had Henry van Statten name-dropped as a billionaire like [[Bill Gates]] and [[Joshua Naismith]]. | |||
*In the online game ''[[The Last Dalek (video game)|The Last Dalek]]'', which presents an alternate version of the events of ''[[Dalek (TV story)|Dalek]]'', van Statten does not appear, but he has an entry in the [[Metaltron|Dalek]]'s memory files. He is described as; ''"Male subject. Age 40. American. Effortlessly powerful. Always with a glint in his eye. The sort of man that won't allow himself to be bored for a single second. Consider potentially dangerous."'' | |||
*Henry shares some similarities with [[Nigel Rochester]] from ''[[Jubilee]]'', which ''Dalek'' was adapted from: Both of them are collectors of alien technology, both of them own a Dalek which they torture in an attempt to get it to talk, and both are betrayed by a woman whom they hold in their confidence. | |||
*To explain how van Statten was unfamiliar with the Daleks, ''[[The Time Traveller's Almanac]]'' suggested that the [[Van Statten Incident]] took place in a [[timeline]] where the [[Cult of Skaro]] did not emerge from [[the Sphere]] and precipitate the [[Battle of Canary Wharf]] in [[2007]] and so did not go on to [[Invasion of Manhattan|influence]] the construction of the [[Empire State Building]], nor was the [[Earth]] [[Planetary Relocation Incident|transported]] to the [[Medusa Cascade]] since the [[personal timeline]]s of both [[The Doctor's time stream|the Doctor]] and the [[Daleks' timeline|Dalek race]] had not progressed to the point where those events occurred. | |||
**Alternatively, the events of ''Dalek'' occurring within [[2012]] place them after the events of [[Series 5 (Doctor Who 2005)|Series 5]], during which the memories of those alien incursions were lost due to the [[time field]]. | |||
** However, as Van Statten acquired the Metaltron circa 2006 as per the information revealed on the ''[[U.N.I.T. (tie-in website)|U.N.I.T.]]'' website, then the time field wouldn't have happened soon enough to avoid the identification of the Metaltron as a Dalek. | |||
== Footnotes == | |||
=== Notes === | |||
{{Notelist}} | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Statten, Henry}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Statten, Henry}} | ||
[[Category:21st century individuals]] | [[Category:21st century individuals]] | ||
| Line 44: | Line 78: | ||
[[Category:20th century individuals]] | [[Category:20th century individuals]] | ||
[[Category:Human criminals]] | [[Category:Human criminals]] | ||
[[Category:Humans whose minds have been wiped]] | |||
[[Category:Human torturers]] | |||
[[Category:Human businesspersons]] | |||
[[Category:Utah residents]] | |||
[[Category:Van Statten Incident]] | |||
[[fr:Henry van Statten]] | |||
[[it:Henry van Statten]] | |||
Latest revision as of 00:29, 22 October 2024
Information from the Dalek novelisation and his police bulletin in The Doctor: His Lives and Times should be added.
These omissions are so great that the article's factual accuracy has been compromised. Check out the discussion page and revision history for further clues about what needs to be updated in this article.
Henry van Statten (sometimes misspelt as "VanStatten" (PROSE: Henry Van Statten [+]Loading...["Henry Van Statten (short story)"], Support [+]Loading...["Support (feature)"]) (born circa 1961[nb 1]) was an American multi-billionaire who had a vested interest in the collection of alien technology — stemming from a childhood fascination of the universe — to reverse engineer into products sold by the corporation Geocomtex, of which he was CEO. He owned the Internet by 2012 and, as one of the richest men in the world, gained enough influence to sway the course of the next presidential elections.
He was part of the Van Statten family.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Early life[[edit] | [edit source]]
Van Statten was the son of Edward Van Statten, the billionaire owner of the Van Statten Corporation, a wealthy business dealing in oil and armaments during the later 20th century. Henry felt isolated from his father, who was endlessly away on business trips throughout most of his childhood while Henry was left to live in isolation in a housing complex within the Utah desert. (PROSE: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (novelisation)"]) Henry grew up watching Star Wars. (PROSE: Henry Van Statten [+]Loading...["Henry Van Statten (short story)"]) Henry found comfort in Otto von Donitz, one of Edward's personal assistants charged with educating and caring for Henry in his father's absence. On his seventh birthday, Otto gifted Henry a telescope, claiming his father bought it him as a gift to look out at the stars and aspire to one day reach them, and demonstrate ambition. However, when Edward returned home and learned Otto had gifted Henry the telescope, Edward fired Otto and had two henchmen destroy the telescope six weeks later.
Embittered by his father's action, when Edward neared death and gifted Henry inherited one million dollars from his father on his fifteenth birthday,[statement unclear] he used the knowledge of Keynesian and Friedmanite economic models Otto taught him to invest the money into the telecommunications business and the internet. (PROSE: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (novelisation)"]) At this point, in the dotcom boom of 1995-2001, Van Statten started making his billions. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Everything Changes","page":"146","chaptnum":"3","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"}) Henry's investment into telecommunications was a decision which infuriated his father, who wanted the money to be cycled back into arms dealing. Henry refused and insisted his father sign the Van Statten Corporation to him rather than his lawyers on the assurance his skill in investing would ensure his father's name survived beyond him. Reluctantly, Edward conceded and Henry took over the company.
When Edward eventually died from his illness, Henry had all his workers mourn the man's death for ten minutes before firing them all and redesigning the entire corporation to achieve his childhood dream of exploring the concept of space and alien life, (PROSE: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (novelisation)"]) to be an astronaut who would befriend an alien on Mars, as he wistfully later put it. The first piece of otherworldly material acquired by Van Statten was moondust, which he found at an ammo fair. While this had been easy for him, he found it to be "ultimate" to have alien grit run through his hands. He then began collecting actual alien artefacts, which was more of a challenge. (PROSE: Henry Van Statten [+]Loading...["Henry Van Statten (short story)"])
Geocomtex was founded in 1999 to combat the Y2K bug, (PROSE: Products [+]Loading...["Products (feature)"]) and as it began to "take off" in the years following, the large sums of money earned fuelled Van Statten's addiction to purchasing alien "leftovers and curios" from the Gray Market, an underground trading scene. He also knew how to differentiate real alien objects from the fakes, which were "easy pickings" in the Market. (PROSE: Henry Van Statten [+]Loading...["Henry Van Statten (short story)"]) Winning these artefacts at auction, he reverse engineered them to create "new" technologies which he exploited commercially. (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"]) Some of the objects he acquired included: an unidentifiable material; a curious rock around the size of a Jolly Rancher that took the combined force of three people to lift; (PROSE: Henry Van Statten [+]Loading...["Henry Van Statten (short story)"]) and technology salvaged from the Roswell crash which he used to create broadband. He kept these artefacts in a private collection, inside a bunker called the Vault more than fifty floors below ground in Utah near Salt Lake City. Henry also now owned the Internet, and influenced American elections to favour his desires. (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"])
Although in the early few years of the new millennium Van Statten did not publicly discuss his belief that aliens had visited Earth, (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Everything Changes","page":"146","chaptnum":"3","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"}) he soon became known for his interest in aliens. (PROSE: Henry Van Statten [+]Loading...["Henry Van Statten (short story)"], The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Everything Changes","page":"146","chaptnum":"3","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"}) After the Slitheen's attempt to plunge Earth into a nuclear war (TV: Aliens of London [+]Loading...["Aliens of London (TV story)"], World War Three [+]Loading...["World War Three (TV story)"]) Van Statten allowed himself to be interviewed by conspiracy theorist Mickey, owner of the website Who is Doctor Who?, about his thoughts on aliens; he talked about the "event" that happened just the week prior and his ambition to collect alien artefacts, which he admitted was fuelled by his childhood dreams. (PROSE: Henry Van Statten [+]Loading...["Henry Van Statten (short story)"])
Van Statten replaced his publicist every month, as answered by the Geocomtex website to any question about if their boss was "a complete nut" on their FAQs page. (PROSE: Support [+]Loading...["Support (feature)"])
Acquiring the Metaltron[[edit] | [edit source]]
According to most accounts, Van Statten purchased the Dalek nicknamed "Metaltron" in an auction. (PROSE: Object Auction [+]Loading...["Object Auction (short story)"], The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Everything Changes","page":"148","chaptnum":"3","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"}, The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"The Daleks","page":"53","chaptnum":"2","1":"The Secret Lives of Monsters (short story)"}, etc.) However, according to another, Van Statten directly purchased it from its owner. (PROSE: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (novelisation)"])
Prior to 28 July 2006 (PROSE: Unexploded WWII Bomb Warnings [+]Loading...["Unexploded WWII Bomb Warnings (short story)"]) or in August 2006, (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Everything Changes","page":"148","chaptnum":"3","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"}) UNIT noticed that something called "the Object" was sold at an auction, and, while UNIT couldn't afford the Object at the auction, they tried to identify the seller and buyer; (PROSE: Object Auction [+]Loading...["Object Auction (short story)"]) the buyer was van Statten, who was invited to the auction, which had a $1000000 entry fee; according to this account, the Object was already called "the Metaltron". (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"The Daleks","page":"53","chaptnum":"2","1":"The Secret Lives of Monsters (short story)"}) UNIT had been tracking the Dalek for years, but they lost track of it in Utah. (PROSE: Object Auction [+]Loading...["Object Auction (short story)"], AUDIO: The Dalek Transaction [+]Loading...["The Dalek Transaction (audio story)"])
On his forty-fifth birthday, Henry decided he wanted to finally purchase a living alien creature rather than parts of now deceased ones. Using his influence, he learned one such creature was in the hands of a private collector Hiram Duchesne, a middle-aged businessman in the ice cream industry. Henry offered the man twenty-five million dollars for the creature, but Duchesne refused. Angered, Henry bought out the man's company and left him bankrupt but Duchesne still refused to sell despite needing the money. Duchesne was ill with cancer and, having heard rumours Henry's scientists had used alien technology to create a cure, he finally agreed to sell the creature to Henry. By now Henry was fifty-three years old. (PROSE: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (novelisation)"])
Regardless of how he purchased the Dalek, afterwards, Sven tidied the museum in preparation of van Statten's purchase. (WC: Sven and the Scarf [+]Loading...["Sven and the Scarf (webcast)"]) Van Statten tried to make the Metaltron talk through torture, but all it did was scream. (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"])
In 2007, while the Tenth Doctor was researching H.C. Clements, several websites relating to van Statten were seen, including his GEOCOMTEX website and his interview on the Defending the Earth! website. (TV: The Runaway Bride [+]Loading...["The Runaway Bride (TV story)"])
Henry's immoral influence on the world stage using his wealth had concerned personnel working within the FBI. The organisation implanted Diana Goddard and Owen Bywater into Henry's security personnel within the Vault to spy on him. (PROSE: Dalek)
Downfall[[edit] | [edit source]]
In 2012, on Van Statten's birthday, the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler arrived in the Vault in response to a distress signal, unaware that the signal came from a Dalek. They were quickly captured by van Statten's guards. At this time, Diana Goddard, van Statten's personal assistant, and Adam Mitchell, a scientist, worked for him. Learning the Doctor was alien, van Statten examined his Gallifreyan physiology. He had plans to make use of his binary vascular system in a marketing venture, branding it as his own creation through a patent. When the Dalek freed itself, he gave the Doctor free rein to deal with it. By the time events came to a conclusion, two hundred Geocomtex personnel had died and the Dalek had self-destructed. Goddard took charge at this point and van Statten got a taste of his own medicine: she ordered van Statten to be taken away, mind-wiped and dumped on the streets, "somewhere beginning with an 'S'," due to him causing the death of 200 personnel. (TV: Dalek) According to another account, however, he willingly wiped his own memory, mentally regressing himself to an infant, after being shown a nightmarish vision of brutally killing everyone he had ever harmed. (PROSE: Dalek)
To the public, Statten mysteriously disappeared. (PROSE: The Whoniverse) At 1:55AM on 2 May, police officers were called out to Riverside Boulevard in Greenhaven, as Van Statten, now just a vagrant, had caused a disturbance. When the police tried to caution him, Van Statten was uncooperative and kept repeatedly saying "don't you know who I am?" A police bulletin, submitted by CSO Morris and approved by Sgt. J. Barnes, was released on 5 May asking the public if they knew the identity or origin of Van Statten. One person noted the vagrant's resemblance to Van Statten, which another flatly denied. (PROSE: Mickey's Blog [+]Loading...{"page":"172","1":"Mickey's Blog (short story)"})
Legacy[[edit] | [edit source]]
Van Statten had a granddaughter, Geneva Van Statten, who would later bring success once more to the family name. She fought the Sixth Doctor on several occasions. (GAME: The Enemies of Time [+]Loading...["The Enemies of Time (game)"])
Personality[[edit] | [edit source]]
Intelligent, arrogant and selfish, van Statten treated his employees as though they were expendable human livestock, to the point of mind-wiping them when they left his employ so they could not betray his secrets. He also displayed no concern for their safety and even when there was a deadly Dalek on the loose, he ordered them not to cause any damage to it and was willing to let them die just to keep the Dalek in one piece. Eventually he decided to help the Doctor stop the Dalek but only did so to protect himself, telling the Doctor that the only reason he was helping was because he didn't want to get killed. Van Statten had a wry, dark sense of humour and treated other humans, and aliens especially, as things he could use to amuse himself or turn to his advantage. The Doctor mentioned Davros, the Dalek creator, to him and secretly compared them, calling Davros "a genius, a man who was king of his own little world" and telling van Statten, "You'd like him". However van Statten was not entirely heartless and apologised to the Doctor when they thought that Rose Tyler had been killed. He claimed that he wanted to touch the stars, unaware of how detrimental his treatment of alien life and artefacts had really been so far. (TV: Dalek)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The name "Van Statten" was previously used by Russell T Davies for the owner of a Swansea real estate company in Mine All Mine.
- In an early draft script for Dalek, van Statten's character was called "Will Fences", as a parody of Bill Gates.
- According to Russell T Davies's The Writer's Tale, the original script for The End of Time had Henry van Statten name-dropped as a billionaire like Bill Gates and Joshua Naismith.
- In the online game The Last Dalek, which presents an alternate version of the events of Dalek, van Statten does not appear, but he has an entry in the Dalek's memory files. He is described as; "Male subject. Age 40. American. Effortlessly powerful. Always with a glint in his eye. The sort of man that won't allow himself to be bored for a single second. Consider potentially dangerous."
- Henry shares some similarities with Nigel Rochester from Jubilee, which Dalek was adapted from: Both of them are collectors of alien technology, both of them own a Dalek which they torture in an attempt to get it to talk, and both are betrayed by a woman whom they hold in their confidence.
- To explain how van Statten was unfamiliar with the Daleks, The Time Traveller's Almanac suggested that the Van Statten Incident took place in a timeline where the Cult of Skaro did not emerge from the Sphere and precipitate the Battle of Canary Wharf in 2007 and so did not go on to influence the construction of the Empire State Building, nor was the Earth transported to the Medusa Cascade since the personal timelines of both the Doctor and the Dalek race had not progressed to the point where those events occurred.
- Alternatively, the events of Dalek occurring within 2012 place them after the events of Series 5, during which the memories of those alien incursions were lost due to the time field.
- However, as Van Statten acquired the Metaltron circa 2006 as per the information revealed on the U.N.I.T. website, then the time field wouldn't have happened soon enough to avoid the identification of the Metaltron as a Dalek.
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ Van Statten decided to buy the Dalek when he was 45, in 2006.
