Cuthbert (The Sands of Life)
Cuthbert was a construction of the Black Guardian, created in order to breed chaos. (AUDIO: Casualties of Time)
He was the CEO of the Conglomerate and was in charge of an experiment in the Proxima System to create a Quantum Gateway. (AUDIO: The Dalek Contract) He didn't like the new President of Earth, Sheridan Moorkurk. When the Laan were diverted to Earth due to Cuthbert's experiments, he questioned the Fourth Doctor about them and wanted to employ him. He then started a war against the Laan, wanting them to pay for destroying his spaceship. (AUDIO: The Sands of Life/ War Against the Laan)
When the Fourth Doctor and Romana went to the Proxima System, they encountered Cuthbert again, who was using the Daleks as his security forces as per a contract he had with them. (AUDIO: The Dalek Contract) The Daleks, however, had ulterior motives, and tried to use Cuthbert's experiments for their own means. After the Daleks were defeated, Cuthbert walked through the Quantum Gateway before it imploded. He wanted to start his empire with a bit of insider training and became a time paradox. (AUDIO: The Final Phase)
He travelled in 1859 where the Doctor encountered him again. He had organised a train robbery in Yorkshire on 15 November of that year to steal some tritonium which he irradiated to make it valuable. He used a second gateway to travel to 2059, where he sold the tritonium to Neville Sanders. He wanted to get Neville to agree that the Conglomerate would be the sole providers of the IT system for the Oceanic State. (AUDIO: The Pursuit of History)
After travelling to 2079, Cuthbert used the Conglomerate to distribute aid in a war that had been provoked by his actions in 2059. He then sent the Doctor and K9 on a trip to a detention block. The Doctor realised that Cuthbert was manipulating time. As part of this, he wanted to shoot a Salonu spaceship down in Iron Age Britain to create the tritonium he would later sell on. In the guise of security chief Mr Edge, the Black Guardian tried to encourage the Doctor to shoot Cuthbert by emphasising the evil caused by the Conglomerate. The Doctor helped Cuthbert realise that he was a construct of the Black Guardian with no actual history when Cuthbert realised he had no memory of a childhood. After the Guardian's plan failed, Cuthbert became free of his influence and decided to become a force for good. (AUDIO: Casualties of Time)
Cuthbert liked to have brown sauce with his chips. (AUDIO: The Dalek Contract)
Behind the scenes
Cuthbert and the Conglomerate originated from the Audio Visuals Conglomerate stories.[1]
