Kandyman
The Kandyman or Kandy Man was a robot created by Gilbert M and employed by Helen A.
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 confectionery. 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)
Biography
With the Happiness Patrol
The Seventh Doctor ran into the Kandyman after escaping the Happiness Patrol. He 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 and get away from the spilled lemonade lest its external candy shell dissolve or stick to the floor. The Seventh Doctor escaped, but later 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 the Kandyman 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)
Behind the scenes
- Steven Moffat jokingly said that the Kandyman was to return as the main villain in Matt Smith's first series.
- After the second episode of The Happiness Patrol aired, HB Stokes, CEO and chairman of Bassett Foods, wrote to complain of the resemblance of the Kandyman to their mascot Bertie Bassett. Upon investigation, it was determined that no copyright infringement had been committed but Stokes was assured the character would not be used again.
