Gantok

Gantok
Appearance:	The Wedding of River Song
Main actor:	Rondo Haxton

Gantok was a humanoid who worked for the Silence, and was known to be their 'weakest link'. He spent his off-duty time playing Live Chess, which he made sure he had protection against by wearing a gauntlet. A proud individual, he could not stand losing a match to anyone, planning to kill whoever beat him; even if it was the Doctor, who was already to die at a fixed point in time.

Biography

Gantok wore Viking-style attire, along with the Eye Drive worn by many servants of the Silence. He was an avid player of Live Chess. He was proud of his skill at the game and, when the Doctor had beaten him during a match, Gantok offered to pay anything to escape forfeiting or electrocution.

Gantok is devoured by the Headless Monk skulls. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)

He told the Doctor that Dorium Maldovar knew many things about his death, despite being met with disbelief; Dorium had been beheaded at the Battle of Demons Run by the Headless Monks. Gantok helped him get into the Seventh Transept, where he turned on the Doctor, angry at him for beating him at Live Chess. Despite the Doctor trying to warn him, Gantok was killed when he stepped on a booby trap that dropped him into a pit filled with the skulls from the Headless Monks, which proceeded to devour him. This was most likely Time's way of making sure the Doctor got to Lake Silencio to die at the unwilling hands of River Song. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)

Behind the scenes

• Counting spitfire pilot "Danny Boy", for whom Gatiss only provided only the voice, Gantok is the third character to be played by Doctor Who writer Mark Gatiss on televison, the other being Professor Richard Lazarus. Mark Gatiss is not credited in The Wedding of River Song under his own name, but as Rondo Haxton, a reference to actor Rondo Hatton, on whom Gantok's acromegalic facial features seem to be based.