Martin Jurgens

Martin Jurgens
Job:	Adjudicator
Affiliated with:	Bureau of Interplanetary Affairs
First appearance:	Colony in Space
Main TV actor:	Graeme Harper

Martin Jurgens was an Adjudicator for the Bureau of Interplanetary Affairs during the 25th century.

Biography

Jurgens was a light-skinned man with curly hair and a beard, and in his identity photograph wore an Adjudicator's rigid black and silver robe with a tall stiff collar.

In 2472, the Master stole Jurgens' credentials and travelled to Uxarieus, posing as an Adjudicator in a scheme to gain control of the Doomsday Weapon. Captain Dent, growing suspicious, requested a copy of the Adjudicator's credentials from Earth Control; when they sent back a photograph of Jurgens, Dent realised he was dealing with an impostor. Later, Jo Grant found Jurgens's original credentials in the Master's TARDIS, which was camouflaged as an Adjudicator's spaceship; she showed the credentials to the Third Doctor, who kept them. (TV: Colony in Space)

Jo Grant discovers Jurgens's credentials in the Master's TARDIS

According to another account, the Adjudicator's name was Martin Jurgen. The credentials found by Jo showed "a clean-shaven man with a round chubby face, blue eyes, and fair hair". The Doctor looked sadly at the photo and said, "Poor Martin Jurgen, whoever he was, is probably floating for all eternity in Space, or atomised." (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon)

Behind the scenes

The previous Doctors as they appear in The Brain of Morbius. The reused photo of Harper is in the second row, the second from the left.

Jurgens never appears in person, but his photograph appears in two scenes in the fifth episode. In reality, this was a photograph of Graeme Harper, the serial's assistant floor manager, posing in the same black Adjudicator robe that the Master wears while incognito.

Five years later, a close-up on the same photograph was used to represent one of the Doctor's earlier incarnations in The Brain of Morbius (along with seven other photos, all taken specifically for that serial). The unusual provenance of the Harper photo was not widely known until 2020, when it was confirmed and publicised by Paul Hanley. Noting the production team's difficulty finding volunteers for the photoshoot, Hanley said that the Harper photo was probably taken from the archive and reused for convenience, but that "the ramifications for this are kinda wild, since there's a strong case to be made that Colony in Space is now the first appearance of a pre-Hartnell Doctor, and he's even mixed up in the plot in a way that seems appropriate for a secret agent of the Time Lords!"