Sharaz Jek
Sharaz Jek was an outlaw who specialised in androids. His dealings with Morgus left him scarred, causing him to wear a mask to hide the disfigurement.
Biography
Early life
Sharaz Jek was for some time a doctor, before taking an interest in androids. He studied androids in depth before making his own highly developed ones.
With Morgus
Sharaz Jek became a business partner with Morgus to collect and sell spectrox. They based themselves on Androzani Minor, the only place the substance could be found, and he created a workforce of androids with the intention of running the business of collecting and refining the spectrox, and he also used them to survey and map the entire cave system to find the best deposits of spectrox. Sharaz and Morgus used the androids to harvest spectrox, as it was too toxic for humans to handle. However, Morgus betrayed Sharaz Jek by giving him faulty detection instruments; when one of Minor's mud bursts erupted, Jek had no warning and was horribly scalded. He travelled into one of the baking chambers saving his life. Jek survived but was horribly disfigured, leaving him wearing a leather suit and mask. Jek's actual appearance had human flesh around one eye and the mouth but the rest was green and bumpy and one eye was out of proportion.
Later life and death
With a new and burning hate of Morgus, Jek raised an android army and took control of the spectrox refinery. When the federal troops captured the refinery, Jek and the androids took the entire stock. At some point, Jek managed to capture the real Major Salateen and replaced him with an android duplicate to spy on Chellak and to have information about the army's plans, slowing the entire expedition down because Jek already knew what was going to happen. All that time he had sent a demand to Androzani Major, telling them he would give them back the spectrox in exchange for Morgus.
The Fifth Doctor and Peri were captured by Jek's forces and Jek instantly became infatuated with Peri, as he himself was denied beauty. He planned to feed her spectrox, keeping her alive so he could preserve her beauty forever. However, The Redeemed Jek was forced to wage a war with his androids, battling federal troops under orders from Morgus. Jek declined to surrender until his terms were met: Morgus' head at his feet.
When both Peri and the Doctor were suffering from spectrox poisoning, Jek became agitated by the threat to Peri's life. Subsequently, the ailing Doctor travelled through the caves to get a cure, leaving Jek with Peri. When the federal army attacked Jek's base, Jek was not much bothered, as he believed they would never find him and defeat his androids. Stotz, a mercenary hired by Jek, betrayed him in joining Morgus to try to find Sharaz's hoard of spectrox. They stumbled upon Jek's hideout.
After revealing his face to Morgus, he forced his enemy's head into an energy beam, killing Morgus in seconds. Jek's victory was short-lived, however, as Stotz opened fire on him. He died in the arms of his most developed Android, Salateen. (TV: The Caves of Androzani)
Other references
Laura Palmer feared that Sharaz Jek was a criminal who could attack shipments of diamonds leaving Saturn. (PROSE: Diamond Dogs)
Behind the scenes
- The role of Sharaz Jek was originally offered to David Bowie but the dates clashed with his Serious Moonlight tour. Also considered for the role were Patrick Allen, Nicholas Ball, Steven Berkoff, Tim Curry, Brian Cox, Michael Gambon, Julian Glover, Mick Jagger, Martin Jarvis, Michael Jayston and Oliver Tobias.
- Jek shares many characteristics with the character Erik from The Phantom of the Opera, in which the character is deformed in the face and hides it behind a mask (which Jek's greatly resembles), falls obsessively in love with a woman and becomes overprotective of her.
