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The Kandyman or Kandy Man was a psychopathic, candy-obsessed robot created by Gilbert M.
Biology and personality
The Kandyman was a pathological, psychopathic, robotic killer, employed as an executioner by the egocentric Helen A. It delighted in creating torture and destruction with confectionary. One of its favourite methods was drowning people in pipes filled with its "Fondant Surprise", a thick solution composed of boiling liquid candy.
It was a sadistic executioner with a very warped sense of humour, speaking with a squeaky, almost child-like metallic voice and producing a variety of deadly sweets to suit its role of execution for sadness. These sweets were supposed to be so delicious humans were unable to cope with the pleasure, overloading their senses and killing them. The Kandyman claimed most of its victims in this manner — "with smiles on their faces" — but it was perfectly happy to throttle them if they refused to co-operate.
Its external shell composed of recognisable sweets like liquorice, sherbet, marzipan and caramel. Kandyman was created by Gilbert M, with whom it shared an almost symbiotic relationship. (TV: The Happiness Patrol)
By the time he encountered the Eighth Doctor, he had a new, almost human-looking body. (AUDIO: World of Damnation)
The Kandyman was tasteful killer but ruthless. The Doctor discovered that he could be stuck to the floor with lemonade. (TV: The Happiness Patrol)
Biography
With the Happiness Patrol
The Seventh Doctor and Earl Sigma ran into the Kandyman after escaping the Happiness Patrol. The Doctor outsmarted the Kandyman, making it break open a bottle of lemonade and stick itself to the floor — it was forced to keep moving on the spot to try to get away from the spilled lemonade lest its external candy shell dissolve or stick to the floor. The Doctor along with Earl escaped, but later the Doctor returned to the Kandy Kitchen to confront the Kandyman, forcing it to retreat into the pipes. The Kandyman was killed shortly afterward when its external candy shell was dissolved in a pipe by a flow of its own strawberry fondant surprise, released by the oppressed Pipe People. (TV: The Happiness Patrol)
Rebuilt
The Seventh Doctor encountered the Kandyman again on the planet Tara. Count Grendel rebuilt it after its charred remains crash landed on Tara. (PROSE: The Trials of Tara)
It attended the Dæmon Bonjaxx's birthday in his bar on the space station Maruthea, as did the Doctor and Ace and a future incarnation of the Doctor and his companion Ria. (COMIC: Party Animals)
Humanoid body
The Eighth Doctor encountered Kandyman in Rykerzon centuries after their first encounter. By that time, the Kandyman had a new, almost human-looking body. The Eleven commented that he constructed this humanoid body from spun sugar after a previous model was torn apart and consumed by Androgums. He assisted The Eleven's scheme to gain control over the population of a nearby world by incorporating silk from Psychic Spider's into confectionery products distributed throughout the world, forming a direct psychic link from its consumers to The Eleven.
This body was eventually destroyed when he was pushed by Liv Chenka into a vat of additives, melting it immensely and becoming "More Syrup than Solid" before ultimately sticking to The Eleven and again being knocked from a ledge, this time landing in the nest of a large Psychic Spider (AUDIO: World of Damnation, Sweet Salvation)
Legacy
On Erratoon, Ace described the Kandyman to Zara as a "bloke made of liquorice". (AUDIO: The Prisoner's Dilemma)
Behind the scenes
After part two of The Happiness Patrol aired, HB Stokes, CEO and chairman of Bassett's, wrote to complain of the resemblance of the Kandyman to their mascot Bertie Bassett. An internal investigation by the BBC determined that the resemblance was coincidental and no copyright infringement had been committed. However, Stokes was assured the character would not be appearing in the series again.
Strax actor Dan Starkey commented, "The Kandy Man was like Doctor Who trying to do a Tim Burton movie, but being made in TV Centre and not quite getting it. The idea of it was quite nice, even if the execution wasn't quite as successful as it might have been." (DWM 475, p. 18)